


Act Two: Johto: Raising Rockets & Reunions

by MinawaKitten



Series: Soul [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Attempted Murder, Fantasy based AU, Gen, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Kidnapping, but i also pull inspiration from the manga, crime and murder, it gets really chaotic to the end of part one, never shown or depicted but implied for sure, old work/repost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 61,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27482023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinawaKitten/pseuds/MinawaKitten
Summary: Part One: Raising RocketsSimon was once good boy of kind nature with his sudden sour turn Kairi and Nick are determined to find out what is disturbing their dear friend. A bothersome young man of red hair appears going by the alias of Black, wishing to bring harm to Simon, proclaims Kairi as a rival and has a rather creepy eye on Nick. Meanwhile, a young lady named Gwen comes to Johto in search of something missing.Part Two: ReunionSince the destruction of the Mahogany Rocket Base. Many things remain unanswered. Kairi and Simon search for what remains of Team Rocket. Nick is struggling to put his life together, thankfully Gwen is there to help him put it together even if she is still searching for Atlas.
Relationships: OC/OC
Series: Soul [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2008375





	1. Part One: Chapter One

She could hear the chirps of Pidgeys from outside her window. She was normally awake before the bird pokemon began to chirp but her mother had let her sleep a little more in preparation of her pokemon journey. The blond looked over to the clock on her nightstand, informing her it was six o’clock. The young lady climbed out of bed, careful not to disturb the sleeping Miltank on the floor.

She opened a small rectangular box on the chest at the foot of her bed. Inside was a jean overall skirt decorated with black buttons, a red shirt with puffy sleeves and a white collar. Next to the box was a pair of white stockings and red and white sneakers. She collected the clothes and clean undergarments and made her way to the bathroom down the hall.

Several minutes later she left the bathroom, returning to her room to place her clothes in the hamper. She noted her Miltank wasn’t in the room and neither was her bag. She pulled on her sneakers and made her way downstairs, it was there she found her Miltank eating it’s breakfast and her bag placed at her usual spot at the table. She pat the pokemon on its head before taking her seat at the table. A young man with messy brown hair placed a plate of eggs and bacon before her with a smile.

“Mornin’ shorty.” he smiled, ruffling her blond hair. The thin freckled girl pouted.

“Don’t be mean Terra!”

“Ah c’mon Kairi, lemme tease you for a little while! You’ll be off, adventurin around Johto, with your best friends and ma and I will be without you for who knows how long!”

“It wont be forever Terra, just calm down!” the young lady sighed, diving into her food. He ruffled her hair.

“Take care,” she nodded with a mouth full of food. With a warm smile the young man placed a bento on the table and left the house to take care of morning work. Kairi finished up her food and cleaned her dish by hand. She returned to the table to pack away her lunch. She found a note from her mother attached to it. She should of expected as much, it wasn’t that her mom was terrible or neglectful, with her leaving on this journey her mother and brother had to take over her chores. She must of picked the harder, heavy duty job. At least she said a farewell last night in case of this happening.

“Come on Mittens, it’s time to go.” The Miltank mooed as she followed Kairi out the house.

* * *

Nick clomped down the stairs, pulling on his yellow jacket in a hurry. Kairi was going to be here any second and he was hardly ready. He glanced over to the couch where his loyal Pikachu was packing necessities in his gray one strap backpack. Next to the Pikachu was Simon and his Sentret, both looking equally bored and ready to split. Simon was dressed in a light black short sleeved coat lined with purple, underneath was a light purple long sleeved shirt. He was wearing a pair of light blue jeans, held up with a white belt around his waist and black boots on his feet.

Nick zipped up his jacket and sighed. Mrs. Locke sighed, approaching Nick to hug him.

“I knew this day was coming. . . but I’m still not ready to let you all run off. . .”

“We’ll be okay,” Nick smiled. “We wont be alone.”

“Oh I know! But my babies leaving home. . ..!” the woman looked ready to burst into tears, making Nick sweat a little.

“W-we’ll call home. . . and. . . you know. . .” a knock came to the door as Nick tried to back away, with an actual excuse he moved quicker to the door. Kairi greeted him with a smile. Simon got up from the couch before she could say good morning. Infuriated, Nick perused to yell at him for his behavior. Kairi sighed.

“I guess I should go?” She watched Nick’s Pikachu rise up from the couch and run off, dragging Nick’s bag with it. She did not get too far with it being so heavy. She scooped up the pokemon and bag and turned to leave. “It was nice to see you again ma’am.”

“Kairi, can you wait a moment?” The young girl nodded. Mrs. Locke reached into the pockets of her apron to pull out two pokegears. One yellow and white, the other purple and black. “I ordered these for the boys, I was going to surprise them with them but, well you saw, they ran out before I could give it to them!”

“Alright, I can take them to the boys.” the woman clapped her hands.

“Thank you so much Kairi!” the girl skipped out of the house and made her way to the professor’s lab. She was about to enter when she noticed the bushes shaking. Curious to know what was going on, she peeked at the space between the lab and the tall bushes. To her surprise it was a boy!

He was a tall lanky young man with flaming red hair, his coal eyes were rather angry and concentrated on whatever he was looking at in the window. He looked rather shifty although, dressed in a black coat and navy pants which were accompanied with black dress shoes.

“Gee mister, if ya want to see the professa you can just go in instead of standing there like some creep.” Kairi spoke up. The boy jumped, startled that he was caught in the act. He scowled, approaching Kairi and giving her a rough shove.

“Get out of here you stupid bitch.” He snarled.

“Alright, not like your a pleasantry to spend time with anyway.” the girl frowned, dusting herself off and inspecting the Pikachu for injury. With the two of them unharmed they entered the lab. The professor smiled.

“Kairi! It’s great to see you!” the girl smiled back, handing off the bag and Pikachu to the owner and respective pokegear to their owners. Her Miltank came to her side and rubbed her head against her leg.

“It’s great to be here professa!”

“Now that you’re all gathered here we can begin!” The professor motioned to the table top where three pokemon waited, a Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and a Totodile. “Please chose your starter so you all may begin your journey into the world of pokemon!” he motioned to Kairi.

“Why don’t you go first Kairi?”

“Sure thing professa,” she approached the table, examining over the pokemon. She made her decision as she lifted up the Chikorita. “I’ll take this one!” Simon was the next to come up to the table and without wasting a second he lifted up the Cyndaquil leaving the Totodile for Nick. Just as the professor was about to speak up once more Simon made his way past his friends and out the lab door.

“My, what a quick runner. He must be eager. . .” the man sighed. “well, I would assume you two are too but if it’s not trouble may I ask a favor of you two?”

“Uh, sure.” Nick replies a bit awkwardly

“Great! My friend Mr. Pokemon lives in a house north of Cherrygrove City, he has an important item for my research but I’m too busy today to pick up. So can I depend on you to to pick it up for me?”

“Sure thing professa!” Kairi took Nick by the arm and pulled him out of the lab. The brunette nearly tripped over his feet but by crashing into Kairi managed to straiten himself out.

“Why’d you stop running?” he asks, rubbing his nose.

“The creepy guy at the window is gone. . .”

“The creepy guy?”

“Yeah. . . there was a guy at the window. I saw him before I went into the lab, I guess he left?”

“That’s good. We don’t need creeps in New Bark.” Kairi smiled, taking her friend by the hand.

* * *

“Can you believe it? Those people have been fighting for two days straight!”

“That’s silly! How can two people fight for two days?” Nick shrugged in response. The two weeded their way through the tall grass to a clearing in the field, there stood a small wooden house with a dark brown roof. The red mail box next to the house indicated this was the house of Mr. Pokemon. Kairi knocked on the door.

“Um, hello? Mr. Pokemon are you in?”

“Ah, one second.” The lock clicked and the door opened. An aged old man dressed in a brown suit and matching hat in hand greeted the pair. “You must be Kairi Miller and Nick Sakati, am I correct?”

“Yeah, that’s us.”

“Come in, come in.” Mr. Pokemon lead the two to a couch across the the one room house. Kairi felt her self twitch. She hated messes and boy this place was terrible. Papers were stacked or thrown all over the place, the bookshelves were half empty with books all over the place. The man’s desk was covered in book, paper and various cups of half finished and cold coffee.

“So, what did you want to give Professor Elm?”

“This rare. . .” the man began to clear away paper surrounding his desk to locate a glass cylinder with a large white egg inside. “egg!”

“An egg?”

“Golly. It sure isn’t like any egg I’ve seen on the farm. It must be a pokemon egg!”

“Pokemon don’t lay eggs. . .” Nick replied in a deadpan tone.

“But we’ve never had a live birth before on our farm before! If they don’t get pregnant or fat and the babies suddenly appear they must come from eggs!”

“And that’s why I wanted to give it to Elm.” Mr. Pokemon smiled. “No one knows where pokemon come from, under the watch of a pokemon professors and if my theory is right, this egg will have our answers!”

“Oh. Well, that surely be a huge step in learning the origins of pokemon.” Kairi accepted the offered egg with a grin. The two stood up, ready to leave, when someone entered the building. Surprisingly, it was Professor Oak. Kairi let out a silent strangled scream.

“Ah, it seems I’m a little late.” The professor frowned.

“Late for what. . .?” Nick asked slowly, trying to snap Kairi out of her shock.

“I recently received a letter from my grandson and friends, I was informed Simon and his friends would be leaving for their own journey. I wanted to deliver these to them.” The professor pulled three pokedexs from his bag. Kairi’s screams slowly raised in volume. Nick’s mouth fell open, utter flabbergasted.

“W-w-wait. . .. You mean that Steel girl in Kanto. . . she knows you?”

“She’s been friends with my grandson for years and Steel highly regards Simon. So I wanted to help prepare him for his adventure with my new model of pokedex!” The professor approached Nick and placed the yellow and white model into his hand, Oak then placed a white and pink pokedex in her hand along with the purple and black model, which she slipped into her bag. “Well, take care. I have to get going!” And the professor was gone. Kairi was unable to shriek any more at this time, Nick took her by the arm and bid Mr. Pokemon a farewell.

“Oh golly gosh! Simon knows the prestigious Oak family? He’s so amazing!” Nick scoffed. “Oh don’t be like that Nick!”

“Alright. . .” he mumbled. Kairi approached a nearby tree. She could easy tell that it was an apricorn tree, specifically a pink apricorn tree, with her limited knowledge. She tapped on the hard skin and then lightly sniffed the hard fruit.

“It smells really sweet. . . I wonder if I can cook it. . .”

“Probably not, apricorns are mainly used for Pokeathlon training shakes and can only be blended with an Apriblender. Other than that you can make pokeballs out of it but the chances of finding anyone who can still do that is slim to none.”

“I’ll keep it anyway.” Kairi smiled, stowing the fruit into her bag. “You might need it for when you enter the Pokeathlons!” Nick suddenly blinked, feeling a vibration from his back pocket. It took him a moment to realize it was his pokegear.

“If you want it.” He replied as he answered the call. “Hello?”

_**'H-Hello? Nick? It's a disaster! Uh, um, it's just terrible! What should I do. . .?** _

_**Oh . . ! J-Just come back here! Please! I've lost everything!'** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I asked the site whats the best thing to do when you're a damn fool and accidentally add someone as a co-creator to a story, someone who doesnt even uses the site any more no less, and they said the best thing to do is to delete it all and repost it, and WELP here i am; heres all this hot content with some edits and adjustments as i cry over 7 year old writing from my past


	2. Part One: Chapter Two

Kairi and Nick were running as fast as their feet could carry them. They made it back to the entrance of the city when Kairi crashed into whoever was entering city limits. Nick pulled her to her feet and dusted her off. She opened her mouth to say sorry when she reconized the boy. The same boy that was staring into the lab’s window hours ago and next to him was a white sheet of paper. She snatched up the paper and gasped.

“You broke into the professor’s lab!”

“Kairi! Don’t yell such accusations!” Nick shrieked, shocked that kindly Kairi made such a statement.

“Nah. She’s right.” The boy grumbled, pulling himself to his feet. His eyes narrowed on the couple, rather miffed for a reason beyond being pin pointed as the criminal. “I did it. I raided Elm’s lab and set fire to all of his research that I did not need.”

“You. . ..! You did what?!” Nick shrieked.

“How could ya do that?! That was his livelihood!”

“He was being rather uncooperative with handing over what I needed.” The redhead approached Kairi and grabbed the top of the paper with his forefingers. She refused to let it go. He glared harder at her, as if he was trying to burn holes into her head but Kairi stood her ground.

“It’s not yours.”

“I think you’re mistaken,” he spoke slowly, edging closer to her face. “These papers are now my property.”

“You’re the one mistaken.” She swung a fist and landed it right across his cheek. The boy rubbed his jaw, scowling.

“You shitty little bumpkin, you’re trying to piss me off?”

“If doing what is right pisses you off, then yes.” Kairi made a motion with her hand, understanding, Mittens stomped on the boy’s foot. He howled in pain and jumped back.

“You fucking bitch!” With a shout a Shroomish was released from it’s pokeball. The mushroom pokemon fired a string of seeds at Mittens as if it was unloading a gun. Kairi made another motion with her hand and Mitten curled into a ball. She rushed forward in her ball like form, kicking up dirt, and ran over the Shroomish. Mittens plowed over the mushroom pokemon before it could even make a second attack, knocking it out. “Piece of shit pokemon!” the boy snarled, returning the Shroomish to it’s pokeball. He didn’t waste a heartbeat to approach Kairi and slam his elbow into her face, breaking her nose, and snatching back what he stole.

He quickly ran the hell out of there when he heard the girl speak in that stupid tone.

“Black?”

“What kind of name is that?” The redhead scowled. He dropped his trainer ID. He couldn’t believe that shit. Would nothing go his way or what? He stormed back to the girl, threw another punch and took back his ID. The brunette was at his friend’s aid in an instance and rushed her to the nearest pokecenter. Kairi resorted to shoving tissues up her nose, saying there was no time and rushed back to New Bark. The two pre-teens were greeted with quite the surprise of seeing the professor’s lab on fire. The flames were not huge, most of them nearly snuffed out, thanks to the firemen at the site. The two pushed their way through the crowd and to the devastated professor, who was a sobbing heap on the ground. Kairi approached the poor man and pat him on the back.

“Thar thar professa,” Kairi put on a smile. “Your research may be gone, but you’re still okay! You can try again and again and with this from Mr. Pokemon you have your first step!” She offered the egg to the man. Professor Elm stared at it for a moment. Once he realized what he was looking at he suddenly started to shake.

“This. . . this is it. . .? Mr. Pokemon’s discovery? A pokemon egg?!”

“Yep!”

“Pokemon aren’t born from eggs!” Nick cried in dismay, throwing his arms into the air.

“Now, now Nick.” The professor sighed, accepting the egg from Kairi. “We don’t know that, I’ll have to research that and see where it take me! I’ll build myself back up!! Just you see!” he managed to crack a smile. “Thank you for running this errand for me you two. Now please take care, the journey to be the best trainer is a long and hard one. I’ll call you if anything comes up.” the two bid the professor a farewell. Kairi quickly scanned the crowd before Nick dragged her out of down. She noticed a police officer and hailed him over.

“What is it miss? We’re rather busy here.”

“I know that sir, but what I needta say is about the problem here.”

“Really now?” the man looked rather skeptical.

“Yes, I was in Cherrygrove City, returning from an errand for the professor with my friend here,” she motioned to Nick. “when I ran into a boy. He had paper from the professor’s labs shoved into his jacket and he admitted to stealing them and committing arson! We got into a scuffle and he broke my nose.”

“So, did you get a good look at him?” The officer asked, flipping open a notebook.

“He got all up in her face,” Nick sighed. “we both got a good look at him.” Nick raised his hand several inches above his head. “He was about five-seven, real skinny and really pale with freckles. He was a redhead, and by the looks of it, a natural one. And some black eyes.”

“What was he wearing?”

“A black jacket, some jeans, pretty sure they were navy colored, and black dress shoes.” Kairi piped up.

“Alright, you may not know it, but did he manage to slip his name?”

“He dropped his trainer ID card in the middle of out scuffle. The name written on it was Black.”

“Just Black?”

“Yeah. It’s probably a fake name but it’s all we have to go with.”

“Alright, thank you very much.” It really wasn't much, but for now, this was all they could do.


	3. Part One: Chapter Three

Simon stumbled out of the pokeceter with a yawn. About midday he arrived at the city of nostalgic scents, he would of battled the gym leader but Falkner, the bird type specialist, had closed the gym earlier that day.

He checked the clock on his pokegear and frowned, too early for the gym to open up. He glanced to the Sprout Tower in the distance. The three floor swaying wooden tower was a well known tourist spot and used for training by trainers and monks. Maybe he could squeeze in some training before heading to the gym.

Hours passed and another figure emerged from the pokecenter. It was Nick, who was slightly drowsy. He made his way to the gym, the purple roofed building was rather tall, compared to the others surrounding it. Once stepping onto a platform elevator inside he understood why, being flying type gym the high elevation was to psych out new trainers.

Nick swallowed a lump but pushed forward. He really had no reason to be afraid although the walkway was wide enough for three people to walk together side by side. He approached the gym leader, legs shaking slightly. The gym leader did not seem to be more than a few years older than Nick, with blue hair handing over his right eye. He was dressed in a shortcut light blue coat with white trimming and buttons. Underneath was a blue Japanese styled top and shorts with a white uwa-obi around his waist. He was wearing long white socks which were accompanied with a pair of sandals, which clashed according to Nick, and on his forearms were black arm protectors trimmed in red.

“Falkner. . .. I wanna fight you. . .!” the young man grinned.

“That’s great, but don’t think using electric types against me will assure an easy win.” He opened a pokeball, letting his Pidgeotto free to whip up a strong current of wind. “I’ll show you the real power of the magnificent bird pokemon. . .!” the wind was so strong that Piaki was lifted off his shoulder and pulled into the strong wind current.

“Oh Arceus! Piaki!” the startled female Pikachu let out a screech of fear as it unleashed a strong bolt of lighting, striking Pidgeotto.  
"Rude!" Nick bellowed. "Don’t throw Piaki around like that!"

"Hey. Getting thrown around is apart of battling." Nick scowled. Okay. That was true but Piaki was special.

"Give him the special!" Nick commanded. The Pikachu nodded. She crouched down, the propelled herself forward, bright light enveloped her body. She leaped into the air, making a direct hit with Pidgotto. A huge shock of electricity hit the bird, making it fall to the ground. Falkner slid across the field to like a Unovian baseball player catch his partner.

"For pity’s sake," the gym leader sighed. "My dad’s prized bird pokemon. . . Well, a lost is a lost." He hailed over the ref, who seemed to be in shock over Falkner’s lost. It seemed he didn’t lose often. . .. The referee presented Nick with his badge. He reached into his bag and placed the silver wing shaped badge in his gold badge case.

"I’ll have to say, I’ve never seen such an electric attack before. what was that?" Falker grinned

"Oh, that was volt tackle."

"Really now? Tell me about it."

* * *

Kairi rode down the escalator with an excited look on her face. She wasn’t sure what to do, she wasn’t like Nick or Simon who were spoiled of stories of the world, she simply had books.

Kairi shook her her head, curling her fingers around the strap of her bag. No! She had a mission to do! She had no time to be distracted! The young rancher nodded to herself. She stepped off the moving stairway, making her way to the door.

The first step to completing her mission was to find Simon! She made her way down Route 32, if she was quick enough she could make it back to the city without Nick knowing she was gone. She was doing well until she found an apricorn tree and berry bush. She placed the hard yellow fruit into her bag and the berries into small pouch. Just as the last one was packed away the ground rumbled. Kairi blinked.

“What in tarnation?” she looked down the route, watching a dust cloud fly in the distance. She squinted her eyes. The figures soon became clear, it was a stampede of Mareeps. Kairi climbed into the nearest tree and watched the herd of pokemon rush into the town. Why the heck would a bunch of wild pokemon get so scared? The were accustomed to the area and wild pokemon about. . .

A loud explosion answered her question.

“Oh.”

* * *

About this time Simon was dragging himself to the pokecenter to heal his pokemon. With a relatively short line he received his pokemon back quickly. He was about to make his way to the gym when he heard a loud boom. The gym’s doors swished open shortly after that, the gym leader and Nick stumbled out, startled by the suddenly flux of Mareeps in the city.

Simon felt nervous. Where the heck was Kairi? She would always be with either him or Nick when she had the opportunity. Did he really lose her? Simon scowled. He always had to clean up his brother’s messes didn’t he? There was suddenly a shrill girly shriek in the air. Neither Nick or Falkner heard it but Simon knew that was Kairi.

She got trampled. Didn’t she?

Simon rushed down Route 32 to find his friend, charred and hair fringed, holding a baby Mareep in her arm surrounded by people dressed in black and each uniform had a giant red R on it. Simon scowled, tossing his pokeball. Quilava appeared before Kairi, the pokemon got down on all fours and ignited the flames on it’s head and backside.

“Quilava, attack!” the pokemon expelled flames from it’s body, setting fire to the people dressed in black and burning their pokemon. The volcano pokemon curled into a ball, lighting itself up and rolled into the remaining pokemon.

“Give it up Team Rocket!” Being recognized the men and women fled with their injured pokemon. Simon sighed and his face quickly twisted into a scowl.

“Kairi, what the heck are you doing?! You’re such a mess, getting into a fight with Team Rocket!”

“I knew it!”

“What?”

“The kind old partner I know is still in here!” she jabbed a finger at his chest making him wince.

“Yeah, well, whatever.” He turned to walk away but Kairi grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him off to the pokecenter. Simon cursed her for her strength gained from all her hard farm work. He tried to run off as Kairi dropped off the baby Mareep but she still refused to let go. This was embarrassing.

“Kairi, you can let go of me now.”

“Are you sure about that?” the reached into her bag and whipped out his pokedex. “A mister Professor Oak gave this to me, a pokedex! He told me to deliver it to you but,” Simon reached out for the device, desperately in need of it but Kairi held it away from his grasp. He tried to reach it again but she moved it away once more.

“Hang out with me and you’ll get it!”

Simon sighed, crossing his arms.

“Fine. Only because I really need it.” Kairi clapped her hands with glee. She took Simon by the wrist and dragged him out of the pokemon center, the soles of his shoes digging into the ground as he was dragged of.

This was going to be terrible.

* * *

And it was. Of all places Kairi had dragged him off to it was to the nearby ruins. Then again there wasnt much of a choice of where to go with that weird tree blocking the way.

“Aint it a sight to see?” Kairi smiled, sweeping her arms across the horizon.

“Sure if you like dirt, dirt and more dirt.”

“Aw, c’mon Simon. There’s more than dirt out here.” Kairi took him by the wrist and dragged him through a series of one room buildings that were missing walls and roof tops covered in mold and grass. Kairi pulled him into a single room structure that was in one piece, at least when compared to the others. Some chunks of rubble resided on the floor along with puddles of water from small holes in the roofing. In the center of the room was a small wall situated between two pillars and a stand covered in what looked like puzzle pieces made of clay.

Kairi tried to arrange the puzzle but quickly found herself unable to work it out. She tried again but no dice. Simon sighed, eye darting to her bag. He would steal it if he could but Kairi would notice him reaching for it, even while stressing over a puzzle.

Simon placed his face in his hands as Kairi tried to put the puzzle together again. He threw his hands in the air, shoved her aside and put it together himself. It took him only a matter of seconds. Once placed together the puzzle displayed a Kabuto ready to attack.

"There. Happy? Can we g-" the floor suddenly gave away, making Kairi and Simon fall with loud yells. Luckily, instead of landing on their faces, Mittens landed first and acted as a cushion for Simon, who caught Kairi. In the distance there was a shrill scream and a stomping of feet. A man dressed in a lab coat rounded the corner.

“What’s going on?! How did you get in here?!”

“The floor caved in sir,” Kairi spoke up, climbing out of her friend’s arms. The man looked up and shrieked. There was a hole in the roof. A hole. What did these terrible kids do to his ruins?!

“What did the floor cave in?! What did you do, you disrespectful kids?!”

“Calm down,” Simon groaned. “We solved some stupid puzzle and the floor caved in! That’s all we did here.” the man suddenly looked excited.

“Solved a puzzle you say? What was the image formed? No one ever solved it before!”

“Are you kidding me? It’s a Kabuto, you study ruins and ancient things and you seriously couldn’t tell it was a Kabuto.” the man ignored his rant and clapped his hands.

“A Kabuto. Amazing!” Simon placed his face in his hands. Why did this happen. Why must he suffer?

* * *

“As promised, one pokedex.” Simon snatched the device from Kairi with a scowl. He couldn’t believe all the noise and mayhem he had to suffer through to get what was rightfully his. Grumbling under his breath he left the PokeCenter.

Kairi smiled. Today had proven all she needed to know. Well, most of it. Simon was still good and caring.

“Miss, the Mareep you dropped off is healthy and in perfect condition.” Nurse Joy called. Kairi lifted the sheep pokemon off the counter and hugged it close to her.

“Oh it’s so cute! I will name this gal Fluffy!” at that moment Nick came into the pokemon center, dirty, covered in hoof prints and tired. He dragged himself to his friend to lay his head on her shoulder.

“I’m so tired Kairi. . . I had to help herd Mareeps back into the wild. I don’t know how you or Terra did that. . .”

“Well, we usually have a herd pokemon help us. . . it’s kinda easy when ya know what you’re doing. Why didn’t ya ask me partner?”

“I couldn’t find you at all. . ” Kairi sighed and patted her friend on the back.

“C’mon Nick, let’s go to bed early today.”

“Where were you all day?”

* * *

Later that night Kairi received a call at the PokeCenter. The nurse informed her that a package was waiting for her at the PokeMart, which was across town. In retrospect that made no sense since to get to the market you would have to pass the center.

Kairi returned to her room, slipped on her sneakers, making sure not wake Nick and left the pokemon center. She made haste to the blue roofed building with the tall rotating sign, she stepped into the shop, dressed only in her pajamas. No one really paid her heed, thankfully.

“Sorry to call you out so late.” a voice spoke up. It was the professor’s assistant, thankfully he looked chipper after what happened to the lab. “But the professor wanted you to have this!” the man jutted out his arms which carefully cradled the pokemon egg she delivered a day ago.

“The egg? Golly, but don’t ya need it for your research?”

“Indeed we do but we cannot conduct our research at this time. You see, the egg needs to be nurtured and loved by not only people and pokemon, as a growing trainer you’ll have plenty of pokemon. At least that’s how the hypothesis works.”

“I guess that makes sense, but why me?”

“You’re a farmer of course,”

“Rancher actually sir. . .”

“Technicalities, still, you have experience raising young pokemon so we would know it’s safe as can be in your care.”

“I see, well, I’ll do all I can to raise this pokemon and call you once it hatches.” Kairi smiled. She bid the man a farewell and a goodnight. She stepped out into the cool night air when she nearly bumped into a woman dressed in extravagant black and gold robes. She was about to apologize when she noticed what was in Kairi’s arms.

“Me oh my. . . that egg must be. . .!” The young woman giggled. “I see. . . handed to Mr. Pokemon, then to Professor Elm and now to you! Now I get it,” the young woman took a step back. “that egg is an important egg. Please do take good care of it. I’m counting on you.”

“Uh. . . okay.” the woman smiled, she gracefully twirled before walking away as if that was not an awkward and sudden conversation out of nowhere.


	4. Part One: Chapter Four

After two days of travel down route 32 and 33 and battling trainers though Union Cave the duo arrived at the last stretch of Route 33. Which was right outside Azalea Town, the second town on the trip to enter the Pokémon League. Sadly, it was raining cats and dogs.

“Ew, it’s raining.” Nick unzipped his coat and used it to cover his head.

“At least the crops are gonna get watered. . .” Kairi mumbled, using a single hand to keep the falling water out of her eyes.

“We’re too far from New Bark right now, so I doubt this rain would reach them.”

“That’s disapointin’ partner. Ma and Terra just don’t get a break often enough from watering crops and the field is so huge!”

“They’ll be fine Kairi.”

“Of course. . .” The blond stopped walking for a moment. She glanced around but saw nothing out of the ordinary. How odd. She was sure someone was there. Maybe it was all in her head? She shrugged it aside and rushed ahead to catch up with Nick.

The two passed a stone well on their way into town. Standing before the entrance was a man dressed in familiar black uniform. Kairi frowned. Another one of those ‘Rockets’? What were these Rockets? This man sure didn’t look like a space ship. That didn’t make a whole a lot of sense. . .

The pair strolled into the town, for some reason, there seemed to be a heavy and said air, something not caused by the rain. pokemon center. They took a spot in line after another trainer. Kairi made an annoyed face and pouted.

“Nick,” He perked up, glancing over to his friend. “what is a ‘Team Rocket’?” Nurse Joy dropped the pokeballs she was handling and the trainer in front of the pair flinched. Nick looked at his friend incredulously.

“Are you kidding me Kairi. . .?” she quizzically tilted her head.

“Sorry. I’m not jokin’ partner.”

“Kairi, Team Rocket is a villainous organization that capture, sell, harm and even kill pokemon!”

“What? Why would anyone do that?”

“Because they’re crazy and power hungry! That’s why!” he exclaimed. He placed his face in his hands and shook his head. “How could you not know this?”

“We had to sell our radio a few years back ‘cause we were doing poorly on the farm. . . after we got profits, Ma never got the chance to go buy a new one. . .” Kairi cursed herself. “Dang it! I should have got one when we went to Olivine a couple of years ago.” the pair noticed the trainer before them quickly running off as soon as they got their pokemon. Kairi and Nick placed their pokemon on the counter. The jittery nurse quickly collected the pokemon and took them to the healing device.

“You wouldn’t have even heard of them two years ago, you would have heard all about Team Rune. They’re just as bad as Team Rocket. . . They were causing all kinds of trouble in Kanto two years ago. Lucky Simon didn’t get involved in any of that mess when he visited his friend.”

“I’ll say! I think I’ll have to report this!” Kairi suddenly exclaimed, looking serious as she could be. With an overbite it could be complicated at times.

“Report ‘this’? What is this?”

“Those Rocket jerks were the ones that got all the pokemon in a tizzy yesterday at Violet City!”

“How would you even know that?!”

“They cornered me.”

“Wha. . .what?!” Nick sputtered. “You’re not hurt? They didn’t hurt you did they?!”

“Nope, Simon helped me out.” There were times Nick was utterly shocked by badly Kairi lacked important knowledge. This was one of those moments. How the heck could anyone not who Team Rocket was? Sure, they were thought to disbanded seven or so years ago, but that’s no reason to not know about them at all!

* * *

“Okay Nick,” Kairi suddenly exclaimed throwing an arm in the air. “Go fight the gym leader and I’ll go collect supplies since we’re running low!” she tightened her arm around the egg case and rushed off to the blue roof building.

Nick sighed. He really hoped she wouldn’t run off and do something dumb while he was gone. But then again it was Kairi and she was a girl of adventure.

Nick took the southbound path to the gym. He took a deep breath and pulled on the handle. The door did not open. He pulled again but the door refused to open. It was locked.

“Oh c’mon. . .!” he banged his fist on the one way glass door with irritation. “I can’t believe this. . .” the brunette sulked a little longer until a hand gripped his shoulder. At first he thought it was Kairi but this hand was too big to be hers. It squeezed his shoulder, making him jump.

“Hello Nick Sakati,” said a smooth and smug voice. The worst [?] thing about this was that he could recognize it. It was Black. What the heck was this guy doing here? An asshole like him should be on the run from the cops after the things he did in New Bark.

“How do you know my name. . .?” his voice shook slightly. He never did introduce himself, maybe he overheard his first name when talking to Kairi but he never once mentioned his last name. The hand on his shoulder moved to the back of his neck, giving it a rough squeeze, keeping him in place. Nick winced. The older redhead grinned, leaning closely to Nick’s ear.

“I come bearing you a one time offer Nick.”

“I don’t want it.” Black grabbed Nick by his shoulder once more, roughly grabbing and throwing him against the door with a thud. Nick let out a small grunt. Black leaned in close to his face, leering angrily.

“Oh come on, I haven’t even told you about it yet.”

“I don’t want it,” Nick repeated under that angry gaze. “I don’t want anything associated with a creep like you.”

“A creep you say?” Black took a step back with a scowl. “I can guaranteed you’ll regret this.”

“I’ll bet you I wont.” Nick sneered, pushing Black away from him. The older male glared, brushing past Nick. The brunette was about to walk off when he felt a sharp slap to his behind. He let out an undignified yelp. He whipped his head, looked over his shoulder with a shocked look and a red face. Black sent him a perverse and yet smug look before disappearing from sight.

“He. . .he just. . .” Nick hurried away. He passed a small hut just as an angry old man rushed past him, ranting about Team Rocket. A little girl followed after the man before falling on her face and bursting into tears. Nick pushed aside his embarrassment and approached the girl, trying to calm her down.

At that moment Kairi exited the store with an armful of fresh and new supplies. Various bottles of healing potions, an escape rope and even a few pieces of stationary. She smiled contently when an angry old man stormed passed her, angrily waving his fist.

“Um, sir? Is everything okay?” the man continued on his way. Worried that he didn’t hear her she followed out to the well. Much to her shock the old man easily lifted the man dressed in black in front of the well and threw him aside and climbed down the well’s old ladder. Kairi wasn’t sure what to do now. The old man was strong and able, but still old. Was she to pursue or stay here? The answer became obvious as she heard what sounded like a scream of obscene words.

She clamored down the ladder to find the old man on his back.

“Uhm. Sir?”

“Damn it all! I threw out my back!”

“That’s terrible, I’ll go get help.” She made it up only one step before the man screamed at her.

“You cannot leave! I refuse to let that happen! You have to go save the Slowpoke in my steed!”

“I haveta what?”

“The Slowpoke! Those damned Rockets stole all our Slowpokes and are chopping off their tails for snacks! Snacks! Cruelty of the cruelest cruel!”

“That’s awful! Okay, I’ll go help the Slowpokes!!” Kairi pulled a pokeball from her bag and rushed into the next cavern. With a battle cry Kairi unleashed Philip. The Chikorita pelted a not so unsuspecting Rocket with sharp leaves, knocking back it’s Rattata. Philip threw it’s weight into the following tackle knocking the pokemon out before it could strike. Kairi herself then punched the Rocket in the face, busting his lip and leaving a bruise.

It was fairly obvious the noise she was making was not going unnoticed. A female grunt soon arrived on the scene. She ordered her Zubat to use supersonic, confusing Philip. The poor grass type ended up walking into a nearby rock. Kairi swapped her starter for Fluffy. The small sheep puffed up it’s wool and made it spark to look menacing. She fired a thunderbolt attack, charring the bat and instantly knocking it out.

“Why you little. . .!”

“Ya keep yer mouth quiet rude lady!” Kairi instructed Fluffy to rub it’s body against the Ekans. The pokemon’s static ability made it grow stiff. Now with her enemy paralyzed Kairi sent Mittens into the battlefield and with a wave of her arm the cow curled into a ball and ran over the snake, knocking it out. Kairi yelled once more, punching the female grunt in her stomach. The woman keeled over, groaning in pain.

The blonde made her way to the last section of the well and was met with a ghastly sight. Various tables covered in blood and bloodied chopping bladed, poor innocent Slowpokes trapped in cages and giant piles of chopped off Slowpoke tails.

Only one man remained. An older male with green hair who sported a bored look on his face. He glanced up and blinked a moment before frowning.

“What? What are you doing here?”

“I’m gonna beat ya up! What yer doing is wrong!”

“If you really intend to interfere with our work don’t expect any mercy.” The man grumbled, running a white gloved finger across the bloodied knife in his hand. He nodded to his Koffing. The pokemon floated forward, ready to fight.

Kairi swung her arm, making the usual motion for a rollout attack but she made it in the direction of a rock. Mittens understood the intention and nodded. She rolled into a ball and steered her way in the direction of the rock, bouncing off it she made a direct hit on the Koffing, knocking it out. The green haired man looked up, surprised his pokemon was knocked out.

“Well then. This was not expected. I’ll have to say I’m surprised. But, a girl like you is just a tiny obstacle, hardly a roadblock on our mission. I’d advice you to be afraid of what’s coming to you.” the man’s Koffing suddenly rose up, expelling a thick cloud of smoke from it’s body. Once it faded, all of Team Rocket’s members, human and pokemon alike were gone. She sighed, she opened the Slowpoke’s unlocked cage and slowly, one by one, Slowpokes climbed out of the cage, making their way to the cave’s entrance.

Suddenly, there was a rocking coming from the egg. She pulled the egg from her bag with worry. Oh jeez. What happened? Did it break or something? The egg suddenly began to glow, Kairi winced at the bright light in the darkness. From the egg came a little, egg-like Pokémon much to Kairi’s surprise. The Pokémon had tiny spikes on his head and its body was very similar to the egg it hatched from. Its little hands and feet were wiggling about as it let out a cheerful cry. Kairi’s eyes sparkled. She lifted the baby above her head with a wide grin.

“Aw! Yer so cute! I think I’ll name ya Apollo!” the baby cried out, waving it’s stubby arms in glee.


	5. Part One: Chapter Five

After taking care of the situation at the well and letting the Slowpoke free the pokemon got help for the old man and brought him home. Two days passed before he demanded the presents of both Kairi and Nick, leading the two pre-teens to where they currently are. Inside Kurt’s house with the old man bowing deeply before the two of them.

“I thank you again for your assistance, miss.” Kairi scratched her cheek awkwardly. “if it was not for you we would still be in trouble. You’ve saved us.”

“It was no problem sir, I only did what was right.” Kurt reached under his table to a basket full of pokeballs. They were all types she had never seen before, some blue, some pink and even green. The old man offered a white ball decorated with black and red to the girl.

“It’s a fast ball. You see, I make pokeballs from apricorns! If you give me one I can make a pokeball in a day or two. I am glad to give you my service! ” Kairi let out a shriek of glee, she pulled the two apricorns from her bag, holding them out to the old man. He accepted the tough skinned fruits and turned to Nick. “And thank you for taking care of my granddaughter.”

“It was no problem. . .” Nick cracked a smile, rubbing the back of his neck. He climbed to his feet, dusted his pants off and bowed. “Now, if you excuse me. I need to see if the gym leader is in.”

“I should go too, so you can work.” She jotted down the man’s number in a small journal, she then bid the two a farewell and skipped out of the house to the PokeCenter to inform the professor about the hatched egg.

* * *

Nick understood that gym leaders had free reign on how to design their gyms but this was just crazy. Ignoring the trees and grass growing in the building there were giant pits which could only be crossed with giant spider like vehicles. This wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that there were several of these spiders total. Which ones lead to Bugsy was beyond him.

With a sigh, Nick climbed onto the nearest giant green spider. He pressed a button with his foot and the spider inched forward at a rather slow pace. Nick groaned. This was going to take forever.

But, at least forever was only an hour long. After multiple spider rides and switching leavers Nick stumbled before the gym leader. He was probably older than Nick but with his height it was hard to determine. His purple hair was messy and short cut. The young man was dressed in what seemed to be green explorer gear and shorts, a yellow ascot around his neck, attached to his waist was a bag full of books and a magnifying glass. White knee high socks and brown loafers. The young man grinned.

“Finally a battle! I’ve been sick for days, when I finally get better I’m told the Team Rocket scoundrels are already gone. You wouldn’t happen to be the one who took care of that would you?” Nick let out a deadpan sigh.

“Actually, that was my friend Kairi. . .”

“I see, well, I guess we all can’t be heroes all at once!” The two trainers let out their pokemon, a green cocooned Metapod on Bugsy’s side and a Pidgey on Nick’s side of the field. The challenger commanded a peck attack. The small bird flew up into the air and swooped down, jabbing it’s beak at the soft Metapod before it had a chance to fully harden itself. With a frown Bugsy let out his next pokemon, a Kakuna.

“Kakuna, use poison sting!” the yellow cocoon pointed it’s tail at the target and fired. It was a direct hit on the bird. Nick felt bad for his pokemon as it hit the ground with a thud. Nick switched out his starter, which had evolved to it’s next form, Croconaw, thinking that Pidgey would fare better in his pokeball for the time being. The big jaw pokemon crouched down, awaiting orders.

“Okay Blaster, use bite!” Blaster pounced, grabbing the Kakuna in it’s jaw. He failed its prey around as if it was a toy before throwing it aside and into a nearby tree.

“Down to my last pokemon then. . .” Bugsy shook his head. “No way you’ll beat my partner Scyther!” A green pray mantis appeared on the field. The pokemon rubbed its scythe like forearms together in anticipation. Nick glanced to the pokeball of his poisoned pokemon. Inside the pokeball the poison was slowed, maybe, if he was quick enough his Pidgey could take down Scyther and then take him to the pokecenter before it got any worst.

“Okay Brave, use gust!” the tired and weak bird complied, flapping it’s wings at a rapid pace causing the trees to shake and lose leaves fly but Scyther was unaffected. The bug pokemon jumped into the air and slammed it’s bladed arm against the bird, as if he was a professional baksetball player and slam dunking a ball into the hoop.

Nick winced in the place of his pokemon. Scyther was a bug pokemon so why had the peck attack hardly phase him? He reached into his bag and flipped open his PokéDex. He pointed the device to the giant bug pokemon across the field. The device scanned the Scyther, once completed, it supplied Nick with basic information ranging from natural habitat, size, weight and even type.

Much to his surprise the bug was a dual type, bug AND flying. Well, that explained why flying types were not that much if a great choice. He snapped close his PokéDex and sent Piaki out to replace Brave.

“Okay, start off with tackle!” Piaki threw herself into the abdomen of the giant bug. Needless to say it was not pleased and delivered the same treatment to her as it gave Brave. Thankfully Piaki was able to handle it and she returned with a volt tackle. That was enough to take down the bug type. Bugsy let out a sigh then cracked a smile as he returned his pokemon to its pokeball.

“Wow, you’re pretty good! It seems my research isn’t complete, take this badge. You earned it!” the purple haired male placed a badge in Nick’s hand. It was a red circle with black dots, much like a Ledyba. He grinned. One step closer to becoming champion!

* * *

Kairi was rocking on her heels when Nick rushed up to the nurse. She happily accepted his pokemon and he let out a sigh. The blonde strolled over to her friend with a bucktooth smile on her freckled face.

“Well howdy Nick, tough battle?”

“A bit,” he sighed. “Did you get all the supplies? You know, before that Rocket thing at the well? I forgot to ask about it and Brave got poisoned.”

“That’s misfortunate partner. . .” Kairi reached into her bag and pulled out white plastic bag full of of goods from the store. “Yer share is in the bag Nick.”

“Thanks Kairi.” he smiled, stowing the items away in his bag.

“Nick Sakati,” Nurse Joy called. The boy took back his pokemon and the two exited the PokeCenter. Nick although was lost in thought. Was this how Black knew his name? Was he hanging around in a PokeCenter without his knowledge and heard the nurse call his name? Should he even tell Kairi that Black harassed him yesterday outside the gym?

“Kairi. . .” she turned to him with a smile. He opened his mouth to speak but he couldn’t find the words. His friend tilted her head.

“What’s wrong Nick?”

“No, nothing. Nevermind.” he sighed.

“If ya say so. . .” she suddenly scowled. Nick went tense. Was she mad at him? “Ah geez! What are ya doing here jerk?”

“I heard Team Rocket was taken down by some kid. . .” Nick nearly shrieked, jumping to his friend’s side. What the hell was up with Black and sneaking up on him?! Was this creep stalking them or something? Kairi noticed the pokeball in Black’s hand was clenched rather tightly. “You wouldn’t happen to be the one that took them down Kairi.” Black shook his head before she could answer. “No, of course not. . . a weak bitch like you-”

“Excuse ya, but fer ya information I did beat Team Rocket. If yer gonna waste ya time tryin’ to insult me ya should move them skinny legs and leave now.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Black demanded with an incredulous tone. “Team Rocket was taken down by a weakling like you?!”

“What’cha talkin’ about? I beat ya in our first battle!” Black breathed heavily through his nose. The noise and scowl on his face quite clearly expressed his anger at the situation. Why was beyond her. Maybe he wanted to prove himself better than them? Good luck with that.

Black threw the pokeball in his hand, unleashing his own Quilava. The mouse like pokemon spewed flames at Kairi and Nick’s feet.

“Watch your aim you useless shit,” Black growled.

“Ya should watch yer mouth!” Kairi barked, letting Mitten’s take the field. “That’s ya pokemon! Ya should treat ‘em with more respect!” The cow mooed and took a defensive stance. Kairi swung her arm across the horizon and Mittens brought her hoof onto the back of the Quilava. Black blinked. That was strange. She swung her arm down vertically during their last battle. He was sure of that.

It was moments like this that Black found himself fascinated and infuriated with Kairi at the same time. She never spoke in battle, never uttered a single command. All she had to do was wave her arm and her pokemon got the message, that stupid Miltank, ‘Mittens’, understood the signs better than any other pokemon she owned making it obvious she was well immersed in these tactics.

But it was these same interesting tactics that angered him, it made her unpredictable, much like her personality, and she changed what the motions mean every once in a while. He could be anticipating one attack but get another instead. What an infuriating woman.

So strong and yet utterly weak and pathetic.

Black glared down at his defeated Houndour. With a scowl he returned the pokemon to it’s pokeball.

“Pathetic. You’re such a weakling. . . you only lucked out Kairi. . .” Black turned on his heel and excused himself from the sight of the two trainers, who glanced at each other.

“We should get goin’.”

“Yeah. . . let’s go.”


	6. Part One: Chapter Six

She was so close. So very close. The confounded pokemon wouldn’t notice her this time. So very close. . ..

_SNAP_

Kairi made a face. She stepped on a twig and the Farfetch’d took off running again. What a little jerk. In the distance she heard a yell. This could mean Nick was either mauled by the bird or he managed to catch it. Thankfully, it was the latter, Nick held tight grasp on the squirming bird and returned it to its worried trainer.

“Oh thank you! You helped me out of a real tight pinch!” the boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a disk from his pocket. “It’s not much but it’s a HM for cut.” the young man waved, making his way out of the forest.

“That’s neat! We needed one of these ta get outta the forest.”

“I guess we got lucky.” Nick shrugged. Kairi unleashed Philip and pressed the disk to her pokemon’s forehead. His eyes suddenly went wide, taking in all the information and knowledge on the disk.

“Is that normal?”

“. . .I. . . I don’t know.” Philip ripped it’s self away from the disk, turning to a thin, ragged tree. The pokemon whipped its vines and chopped the tree in one blow.

“Wow Philip! Yer so amazin’ little guy!” the little Chikorita looked proud as he walked forward, as if he was leading the pair. After hours of wondering around the duo was closing in on the end of the forest. Kairi looked up and sighed. The trees were so tall light couldn’t peak in and she could hardly see the sky at all but she had a feeling the night was already upon them. She reached out and took Nick’s hand.

“It’s dark out, so let’s hold hands so we don’t lose each other.” Nick blushed but nodded no less. At that moment a young lady, dressed in a kimono, was noticed by the group. She walked back and forth, worried.

Kairi squinted her eyes. Was that the same girl from Violet City? No, her kimono was colored with shades of purple rather than black but it was still lined in gold.

“Excuse me miss, but what’s wrong. . .?” the kimono clad girl jumped. She had hardly noticed anyone was around. She took a step closer to see who had found her and a warm smile crossed her face.

“Oh, it’s you. What a pleasant surprise.” ‘it’s you’? How did she know her? It wasn’t the same girl from before, she knew that for sure, her voice was different. Kairi blinked. “I’ve become lost in these woods and it’s become nightfall, what a misfortune.” Philip squeezed it’s self between Kairi and the kimono girl. Using his vines, he pointed in the direction of the exit, a little north-west from where they currently stood. “My, my, what a smart pokemon. I thank you for your assistance, I’ll take my leave now.” despite wearing wooden sandles the kimono girl hurriedly walked off. Nick and Kairi looked down at Philip.

“Ya knew how to get out all along, didn’t ya?” the pokemon glanced aside.

* * *

By the time the two exited the forest and into the terminal between it and route 34 they chose to stay the night in the terminal. Morning came and the two dragged themselves out of bed, prepared for the day and made their way to the city.

The houses were big, apartments were stacked sky high and streets the seemed to sparkle of golden yellow hues. So many sights and attractions filled the city. It was home of one of the biggest department stores, the radio tower that broadcast over Johto and Kanto, and one of the few global trade stations around the world. Goldenrod was truly a magnificent metropolis.

Kairi’s eyes sparkled, grabbing Nick by the hand she took off running into the city. Nick managed to catch himself before being captured in a tourist haze. He shook his head and pointed to the pokecenter.

“We need to go heal up our pokemon and wash out clothes,” he motioned to the dirt and twigs in Kairi’s hair. “and. . . you know, look presentable at least. They might not let us go visit some places dressed like this.”

“Oh, yer right Nick! We haven’t washed our clothes in a while. . . it would probably be good if we cleaned them all while we looked around town!” The two made their way to the pokemon center, it was bigger, much bigger, than the one they saw in Azalea Town and Violet City. The insides were rather luxurious, marble tiled floor, velvet red couches and glass tables for trainers to lounge and dine upon. Various other high priced items decorated the place. The nurse smiled, greeting the pair.

“Welcome to the Goldenrod City Pokemon Center, how may we be of service to you?”

“Yeah, we would like to check out a room, and use the facilities please.” with a smile the nurse turned to her computer, typing away on the keyboard.

“Alright, who’s name should I put the room under?”

“Nick Sakati,”

“Alright Mr. Sakati, I need to see your and your friend’s ID please.” The two caught up their IDs, Nurse Joy scanned the IDs, proving their authenticity. She returned the IDs and placed a pair of key before the two with a smile. “Here you are. The facilities are down the hall and to the left.”

“Thank you kindly ma’am.” Kairi took her key and ran down the hall to the washing machines. It was hard to believe it was a month on the road already. She shoved as many of her shirts and overalls into the washer along with her dirty socks, adding the soap she slammed the machine close.

* * *

Within the hour the two pre-teens were clean and changed into nicer attire, a pale blue dress for Kairi and a pair of sandals, clean brown slacks and a white shirt for Nick, and they were ready to explore the city.

“Where do we go first?” Nick inquired. Kairi shrugged, she had heard of the many places in the city and now that she had the chance she was overwhelmed with what to do.

“I don’t know, maybe a show. . .?”

“Like a movie?” Nick looked thoughtful. “Sure! A movie sounds great, I haven’t seen a movie in forever! I haven’t been to a theater before and neither have you, it will be a new experience!” Nick took his friend by the hand, running down golden streets.

* * *

The two friends spent a happy day together, exploring the city, eating at a fine restaurant and checking all the sights it had to offer. Well, most of them. The city was so big and there was still so much left to do but night had fallen leading to business to closing their doors to the young. They decided to return to the pokemon center for the night.

The two made their way to the washing machines and dryers to pick up their laundry, to find out that some other trainer had moved their clothes to the dryers and baskets for them instead of throwing the clothes on the floor. Bless that trainer’s heart and soul. The two lugged their respective clothes into their room, leaving baskets aside to deal with later, before jumping into their beds for the night.

* * *

Kairi was the first to awaken the following morning. Nick was sleeping on his back with his mouth wide open, sheets half hanging off his waist and half on the floor. She rose from her bed to cover her friend properly and turned her attention to her laundry. By the time she finished a knock came to the door.

“I have a message for a Kairi Miller, is she awake?”

“Yes ma’am?” Kairi asked in a hushed voice.

“I got a call from your mother, she said she ordered you a pokegear, it’s waiting at the department store’s electronics floor and she sent me this pokemon, a Ponyta named Ember.”

“Oh, thank ya kindly ma’am,” Kairi smiled accepting the pokemon. The nurse smiled, excusing her self to continue her work. The blond quickly scribbled a note down for Nick in case he woke up while she was out and placed the pokeball down on the note. After all, Ember was for Nick. The Ponyta was very fond of Nick, she was probably rather upset that he wasn’t visiting her for a while and was sent here to cheer up.

Kairi pulled on her usual trainer gear and clomped down the streets with a smile on her face. A brand new pokegear. It must have been expensive!

In the distance, at the very same apartment store Kairi was heading towards, Black was making use of the timed binoculars. He scowled at his rival. What an overexcited loser. The binoculars’ vision suddenly went black, indicating he ran out of time. He shrugged it off, walking to a simple prize ball machine when his pokegear rang. He scowled at the name on the screen.

“What do you want?” he demanded with irritation, shoving money into the prize machine.

_"How long do you intend to be out?"_

“As long as I want.” Black sneered, extracting his prize. It was a small keychain in the shape of an Eevee.

 _"You cannot keep ignoring her."_ Black inspected the keychain with a bored look on his face.

“Calm down, I got her under my thumb, even got her a stupid present. Besides, with the way she's attached to me she’ll be all sunshine and rainbows the second I get back. She’s too easy to manipulate.” A far too amused grin covered his face.

_"I see sir, carry on."_


	7. Part One: Chapter Seven

Days passed and the duo had seen many placed it had to offer but on this one day, the room in the PokeCenter was empty but for one occupant and his beloved pokemon. Nick woke up around ten o’clock that afternoon at Piaki’s hand work. He always requested her to wake him up if he tried to sleep past ten. The boy yawned, as he did he noticed Piaki pointing to something urgently. It was a note from Kairi.

> _Dear Nick,_
> 
> _Ma sent Ember. She musta missed ya real bad so take care of her Nick!_
> 
> _I got my pokegear! It’s a very cute model too. I called Kurt to make sure it worked, it did and he told me my pokeballs were ready so I’m going to Azalea for the day, I probably wont be back until later so have fun today!_
> 
> _Love Kairi._

Well, that sucked. . . To explore this city alone would be boring and Kairi would miss out on things. . . He could go ahead and go to the gym. Yeah. That would probably be the best to do for now. Nick yawned once more, stretching to the ceiling and climbed out of bed to prepare for another day.

The gym was only a fifteen minute walk away from the pokecenter, he took one step in before stepping back slightly. The gym had a very girly flare to it, sweet scented flowers and potted plants decorated the gym, the floor was covered in light pink and cream colored tiles, a series of stairs and platforms covered the floor to make a giant maze trainers had to traverse through and waiting in the maze were many pretty girls ready to fight.

He wasn’t really expecting this. He sucked at puzzles.

About two hours later, Nick managed to bat away the lasses and beauties in the gym, this only managed to leave him annoyed. He never understood why trainers need doubles, even triples, of the same pokemon. What was even the point of that? With a sigh he shook his head and approached the gym leader. She was a young lady in her mid teens with pink hair with golden hairclips and matching pink eyes. She was dressed in light white sports jacket with gold buttons and trimmed red. She was dressed in jean shorts, blue and black striped knee high socks, red and white sneakers and had a red sweatband on her right wrist.

“Well, what can I do for you cutie?” She winked. Nick shuttered and glanced aside. She was hitting on him. Ew. Gross. Getting hit on by strangers was weird.

“My name is Nick Sakati of New Bark Town! I’ve come to challenge you!” Whitney’s pink eyes sparkled as she let out a dreamy sigh.

“You’re Kairi’s friend! How cute! You’re way more adorable than I thought you would be!”

“W-what. . . how do you know Kairi?”

“I met her at the radio tower today! She was so confused about the building was adorable! She was trying to win a radio card, she was pretty good at the quiz too. She ended up telling me about a cute friend of her’s named Nick and how he’s going to enter the Pokemon League!”

“Oh, that’s nice of her. . .?”

“And you know what else is cute?”

“. . .No?”

“My pokemon of course! But just because we’re cute doesn’t mean we wont beat you up! Go Clefairy!” Nick was finally relieved that the battle beginning, that whole conversation was getting kinda unnerving for a while. He quickly released Ember, the blue flamed horse pokemon clomped her hooves, excited to see Nick. She affectionately nuzzled her face against his. He smiled, petting her flaming mane. Whitney gasped. “Wow! What a pretty pokemon and it even has blue flames! But no where as good as mine! Now, double slap Clefairy!”

“Ember is special like that. She’s one of rare coloring of pokemon, a shiny pokemon! Now, use flame wheel!” The horse’s body was enveloped in blue flames and she charged to meet Clefairy. The force of the horse slammed into the fairy pokemon, making it go off kilter but it came right back to at least land two slaps on the horse. Of course Ember would have none of that and stomped on the fairy’s head, making it smash face first into the floor.

“How dare you do that to my Clefairy!” Whitney growled “Clefairy use Metronome !” with its face still on the ground, Clefairy lifted its arms and waved its stubby fingers back and forth. The attack was chosen and Clefairy lifted it’s face and opened it’s mouth to. . . unleash a torrent of leaves. Ember, being a fire pokemon, was hardly harmed. The horse glared, Nick’s face was on the floor and Whitney was horrified.

“Stomp on it. . ..” Nick called to break the silence. Ember complied, stepping on Clefairy again, knocking it out. With a huff, Ember returned to Nick’s side where she was once more pet with affection.

“One left. . .” Whitney muttered returning her Clefairy and released her own Miltank in it’s place. “But I ain’t losing!” Nick paled slightly. Miltanks for always a force to be reckoned with. Kairi taught him that well, especially when he made his first visit to her farm and from watching her fight Black. Rollout had to be the deadliest attack this pokemon could do, it could easily take down half of his team too.

Well, maybe Blaster could do something. He was a very strong fellow and he could take a rollout or two. Probably. Nodding to himself Nick recalled Ember and released his Croconaw. The big jaw pokemon let out a roar before crouching into a defensive stance.

“Knock him around with a rollout Miltank!”

“Grab her!” Whitney blinked. No one ever attempted that before. That was just crazy! Well, it’s not like it would work anyway. . . Except that was not the case, Blaster grabbed the Miltank and supaplex her onto her back. On Nick’s instructions Blaster bit down on the Miltank’s back. The cow let out a howling moo of pain and scrambled away to the side of it’s trainer. Whitney gave her pokemon a look of pity before scowling at Nick.

“You’re so rude!” she barked. “I’m gonna make you pay! Stomp on that jerk Miltank! Stomp on it!” the Miltank shook it’s head, obviously not wanting to deal with that evil Croconaw. Whitney let out a stressed yell and flailed her limbs, Nick used this opportunity to bast the trainer and pokemon with a water gun. No one could tell if Miltank was actually down or just pretending to avoid confrontation with the big jaw pokemon, regardless, the referee declared Nick the winner. Whitney was instantly in tears, a rather startling development for Nick.

“You meanie!” she sobbed. Nick awkwardly took a step back and into a lass, who sighed as she scratched her head.

“Gee, you made her cry again.”

“That’s. . . um. . .”

“Weird, I know, just give her a couple of minutes and she’ll be fine. ”

* * *

Hours passed and Black was still on his perch on top of the department store. With a bored expression he flipped a switchblade open and close. Soon this even bored him so he took another look through the binoculars after coughing up money. He swept the streets to take notice of a familiar person. Nick leaving the gym with his shiny plain badge in hand. More specifically, Nick without Kairi. Perfect. With a sickening grin Black made his way to the elevator.

He was going to make him regret putting down his offer.

* * *

Kairi tiredly stumbled into the room late that night. She glanced to her pokegear to see the exact time, **10 : 29 PM** in big white text. Predictably, Nick was already asleep, curled up in a tight ball underneath the bed sheets with Piaki curled up on the unoccupied pillow next to his head. The Pikachu looked up at her tiredly. Kairi pet the Pikachu on it’s head, in return she nuzzled her face into her hand, she pat her friend on his head before changing into her pajamas.

It was odd, Kairi thought as she laid in her bed, the air seemed so thick and tense. . .

Well, it was probably nothing. If it really was, Nick would tell her in the morning. . .

* * *

At the hands of usual habits Kairi was the first to rise once more, when she returned to the room she found Nick awake. He looked rather tired and even more ragged than usual. Kairi smiled.

“Mornin’ partner.” a heavy silence followed. “Did you have fun yesterday?”

“Oh. . . yeah. Fun, fun you know.”

“That’s great!” Kairi smiled. “ I’m sorry that I left you alone all day but today I can make up for that. Are you ready to go explore the city again?”

“Yeah. . . just give me a minute. . . I need to shower.” Kairi nodded, excusing herself and waited down stairs. About twenty minutes later Nick came down the stairs, he didn’t look better, but at least a little refreshed. Kairi figured he must have had a bad dream after she fell asleep. She took her friend by the hand with a smile.

“C’mon Nick. I heard there’s a bike store in the city. Maybe we can buy some?”

“That sounds like a great idea,” after getting directions from the nurse joy the duo made their way around buildings and narrow alleyways to a small building behind the department store. The building was not in the finest of conditions, windows smudged and dirty, a few blue shingles were missing from the roof.

“You would think a bike shop would be more obvious. . . and in better condition. . .” the two stepped into the building, the inside of the store was. . . okay. A few tool boxes strewn about, bikes lining the walls and racks.

“Um, hello?” Kairi called. Not even seconds later there was a sound of someone’s head hitting the counter top and a groan. The owner of the voice soon appeared from under the counter, rubbing his head.

“Sorry about that, this is Miracle Cycle’s Goldenrod branch. Here at Miracle Cycle, the world is a cycling path!” the man rubbed the back of his neck. “So, have a look around. Holler if you. . .” he let out a sigh. “Actually. . . can I ask you two to do something for me. . .?”

“I guess so mister. . ..”

“The truth is, I’m not getting a whole lot of sales. The location the company chose is pretty terrible, not many trainers know I’m out here and because of that it’s rare to get customers. So, I’ve been thinking, what if I get some trainers to advertise my bikes for me? You two look like a pair of kind, loyal and honest kids. . . so can I hope on you to do that?”

“How would we advertise the bike although?”

“I’ll let you two borrow some and you can ride them around, they have our store name on them too so people will know our names and look us up!”

“Gee, that sound swell! What do you think Nick?” he nodded.

“That sounds like a great idea, we’d be glad to help you sir.” The grateful man told them to pick any bike from any section. Kairi, being the simple girl she was, she chose a simple pale blue bike and Nick grabbed the nearest bike next to him, that happened to be a yellow sports bike. Kairi and the man exchanged numbers and the duo left the shop.

Not far off was Simon, he exited the casino, which was open to all ages as long as they had a form of valid ID, with an Abra on his shoulder. He smiled fondly at the PSI pokemon as it perched itself on his shoulder. In the distance, he heard a voice. That was Kairi. He could tell. He knew it and he couldn’t deal with this now. . .

 _Just walk,_ he thought to himself, _just keep on walking._

Kairi had none of that. She threw herself on her friend, hanging off his arm.

“Oh partner! It’s so nice ta see ya again!” he kept his mouth shut. “Aw c’mon Simon! Don’t act like that! Ya know ya missed me! We should eat lunch together!” without waiting for a response, Kairi once more dragged Simon off with unnatural strength. Nick sighed, reluctantly following the two to the food court in the department store.

“So, how’s ya adventure been goin’ Simon?” the boy tapped his hands on the table with irritation. He looked away with a huff.

“Fine.”

“Nick has collected three badges so far! I’ve never seen him battle a gym leader but I know it’s real good fights between him and the gym leaders!” Simon looked interested for a moment, he smiled. A smile that warmed Kairi. Simon seemed to catch himself and scowled.

“Yeah! He’s really great at battling, and so far his team is looking good!” Simon glanced aside for a moment, to Nick. He squinted his eyes. Was Nick. . . limping? The brunette returned to the table with a tray of burgers, French fries and sodas for each of the three.

“Nick, did you manage to be a fool and hurt yourself while training or what?” Simon’s words were intended to be snide and rude but Kairi could hear that undertone of concern. Nick paused handing out the food. He quickly shook his head.

“No. . . I was just, walking around the city alone yesterday. . . I, uh, got into a small fight.”

“Nick Sakati in a fight?” Simon sighs a bit dramatically as if it would hide the concern in his tone. “Now that’s a sight I would like to see!”

“No. . . it was a lame fight. . . I got stabbed in the leg. . .” both Kairi and Simon stopped eating to look at Nick with an incredulous look.

“What?! Who attacked ya Nick?! I’ll punch them!” Kairi bellowed, grabbing the attention of everyone in the food court. Simon forced Kairi back into her seat.

“Did you at least report the jerk? I am doubtful you instigated a fight.”

“I didn’t instigate it, believe me. . . and it was Black, Kairi. . . he was probably mad that he lost another battle to you in Azalea.”

“That jerk!” Kairi shook her fist furiously. “He’s got beef with me! He betta bring a fight ta me if hes got problems!” Simon suddenly pulled himself to his feet.

“I’d say this second kidnapping was a delight, but it wasn’t, and I have things to attend to.” Simon took a couple of steps away before Kairi called out to him.

“Are ya sure ya wanna go with out ya pokemon?” Simon’s hands shot to his belt to find the whole belt was missing with his pokemon. He spun around, there Kairi was, seated in that booth seat with a stupid grin on her face.

“Give me those Kairi!”

“No sire!” she huffed, pressing the belt to her chest. “Today I’m takin’ Nicky to the Pokeathlon Dome! You’re his friend too so ya gonna support him too!” Simon groaned loudly, making an exaggerated expression of pain.

Why must she keep on doing this to him?!


	8. Part One: Chapter Eight

Let us rewind a couple of days and situate ourselves on a rather luxurious ship making its way to Johto from the region known as Hoenn. The ship was full of many trainers, young, old, experienced and new, and people on vacation.

On the upper floors was a room like no other. The most expensive and highest of quality with the best view was currently in care of a young lady named Gwendolyn Hitachi. Resting in the chair on the balcony was a young woman in a pale pink dress that fit her hourglass body shape well. With a computer in her lap her deep pink eyes scanned the screen. She let out a tiny sigh before closing the laptop. The Porygon and Kirlia at her side glanced up as she ran a hand through her long black hair adorned with red bangs.

“We’ll be arriving soon,” Gwen rose to her feet and reentered her room. “We need to prepare for docking and I need to dress, Dianna, I you could assist me.” The emotion pokemon nodded, glowing faintly, psychic energy grabbed the zipper at the back of Gwen’s gown and pulled the zipper from her upper back to her hips. Gwen caught the fabric at the front before she was exposed. The girl’s Porygon grabbed a pair of clean clothes, placing them down on the marble sink counter in the bathroom.

The pokemon then got to work organizing the room and their master’s belonging as she took a shower, Porygon and Kirlia using electromagnetism and psychic powers to move items while Combusken picked up items with his own talons. When Gwen exited the bathroom she nodded at the cleanliness of the room. The young lady walked to the dresser and mirror, she seated herself and began to run a comb through her wet hair. She pulled her hair into low twin ponytails with red ribbons and put a pair of pinkish pearl earrings on her ears. Gwen took a step back to admire herself in the mirror.

Red and black biker shorts, a pink turtleneck and her family emblem professionally stitched on the back of a white jacket. The young lady smiled. Dianna presented her with her backpack, which she pulled on, and so the trainer left her room to wait on the upper decks of the ship until they arrived at Olivine City’s port.

Gwen was one of the firsts to get off the ship due to waiting in the ship’s parlor. Kirlia spins beside her as Combusken wheels his master’s second bag behind her and Porygon sits on it. The young lady takes a look around the port city before whipping out her foldable bicycle from her trolly bag. She attached the basket to the front of the bike before zipping the trolly bag shut and strapping the bag to the metal cargo rack at the back of the bike.

She returned all of her pokemon to their pokeballs with the exception of Dianna, who climbed into the front basket.

“Okay Dianna, begin sensing.” the emotion pokemon raised it’s pink horn to the sky and Gwen took off peddling. She had to search everywhere. Not a single rock could be left unchecked. It was here and she needed to find it.

To scan the city top to bottom took her days and Dianna’s horn had not shined once. It was clear the target was not here. From her perch on the top floor of the lighthouse she took in the surrounding sights, she could see a tall tower to the north-east and to the south-east was a radio tower. According to her books that would be Ecruteak City’s Bell Tower, were legends said a rainbow bird of legends once resided, and Goldenrod City’s Radio Tower, that broadcast across both Johto and Kanto, respectively.

She could always as for them for help too. . . they were new trainers so maybe they were within either of the two cities.

Gwen nodded to herself and entered the elevator with her bicycle. As soon as she exited the building she was gone, biking as fast as she could go. The dual hair girl only stopped once during her trip and that was to go to sleep for the night. The next day she was off once more, bursting through the city limits of Ecruteak. The was awed by the ancient Japanese architecture of the city, not many cities or region had such ancient styles of building and it was quite a sight to see.

Gwen came to a stop at the PokeCenter, the only building with a modern style besides the mart and gym, she parked her bike in the racks to the side of the building and entered. She placed down her pokeballs and a sealed envelope. Gwen watched the nurse placed her pokemon in the healing device before opening her envelope. The nurse’s eyes quickly ran over the paper, taking in the information before shaking her head.

“I haven’t seen them, but,” the woman approached the computer, typing away at the keyboard. “According to our logs the two just left Goldenrod City’s center today. They should be on the way to the city, if they don’t make any stops on the way.”

“Would there be any popular destinations along the way a trainer would stop at?”

“The Pokeathlon Dome and the National Park. They’re both real popular places for the trainers young and old. Your best bet is the dome although.” Gwen nodded.

“Thank you very much,” the young lady bowed. She collected what was hers, leaving the center to board her bike and peddled away without asking where the dome or park was. Well, it wouldn’t be that hard would it? Luckily, everything was smooth until she hit the weird tree that. . .

She would poke at it and it would jiggle and dance. Was this a unique feature to trees of this region? No, that could not be. No other tree acted that way. . . Dianna began to inspect the tree herself as Gwen took a seat on the grass. The emotion pokemon glanced over the tree with curiosity. She poked it and the tree jiggled. The pokemon let out a thoughtful hum before spinning on the tip of her toes, calling rain down with a rain dance. The tree suddenly began to shake much more furiously than before, revealing it was not a tree but rather a Sudowoodo.

“A pokemon!” Gwen gasped. She reached into her coat pocket and wiped out a pokedex. “Ah ha! A Sudowoodo, the tree pokemon!” she crossed her arms. “But why would the pokemon be in the middle of the path like this. . .?” a loud, angry snort came from behind the girl. Gwen slowly turned her head. It was a Stantler and it was glaring furiously at the Sudowoodo. With a growl it charged for the tree pokemon, which let out a small sound of fear. Gwen barely had time to roll aside and avoid being trampled.

“Dianna! Stop that pokemon!” Dianna gracefully spun up to the big horn pokemon and hit it with a magical leaf attack. The Stantler’s attention moved to the Kirlia. The pokemon snorted once more and charged. Dianna spun out of the way and fired a psychic attack from it’s horn. The weaker wild pokemon fell. Gwen sighed. She noticed the Sudowoodo had left in the middle of the fight. She could only figure that the tree pokemon was hiding from the big horn pokemon by acting like a tree, inadvertently causing problems for trainers.

She shook her head, biking off once more.

* * *

Gwen looked around with sparkles in her eyes. The Pokeathlon area was quite lovely, the dome itself was a huge building, with flaming torches on its steel blue roofing. To the east of the dome was a track and field and a juice stand. Gwen bikes past a girl with blond hair clinging to an exasperated raven haired boy. She parked and locked her bike before entering the building.

Several minutes later she stood at the front desk of the dome dressed in new clothes. A light pink, white collared, jersey. A light white shirt was exposed by the open jersey, covering the lower half of her body was a pair of loose pink shorts and her usual sneakers. How did she end up like this? She asked where Nicolas Sakati was, and she was informed he was entering the competition for the day and then. . . it was all a blur. . .

Well, she was signed up for the competition as well and she was not one to back down. She let out a tiny sigh, pulling her hair into a ponytail and made her way to the track. She let out her pokemon, in addition to her new partner, Bella the Snubbull, and began to inform them of the current situation. Her eyes remained focused on Bella as she spoke causing her to miss that her Combusken had left her side. The young fowl pokemon approached a brunette contestant in a yellow jersey and shorts, it curiously looked at the bandages wrapped around his left knee and lower leg. An injury from practice perhaps?

He must be a weak human to injure himself. By the time the pokemon was coming in for a closer inspection the boy noticed and jumped back. The boy looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

“U-um. . . shoo?” the Combusken gave him a look, questioning if this kid really told him to shoo like a common stray.

“Chiko!” The starter looked away from the boy and to it’s trainer, who was jogging over. Gwen was frowning, with her hands on her hips. “What are you doing over here bothering this young man mister?” the pokemon shrugged. “That will not do Chiko!” she sighed. “Go run laps with the others, you need to warm up too.” the pokemon shrugged and did as instructed. Gwen bowed to the boy.

“I’m sorry for bothering you, I’ll be on my way now.” the boy watched the girl walk off, his face slightly red.

“Wow. She’s pretty. . .”

* * *

“C’mon Simon!” Kairi whined, dragging the raven haired boy into the stands. Simon was honestly surprised she didn’t try to carry him off. She had the power, strength and endurance to do so. He sighed, giving up, allowing him to be dragged off. She had his pokemon so it wasn’t like he could run off anyway. Might as well get this over with.

“Are you ready ladies and gentlemen?! It’s time for the final competition of the day! The speed track! Let us introduce our competitors today! Competitor Number One! It’s Nick Sakati of New Bark Town.” Nick walked out into the field with Ember, Piaki and Brave following him, he awkwardly waved at the people in the stands. He always wanted to participate in the Pokeathlon but with so many people in the stands he suddenly felt nervous. He took a deep breath as the remaining contestants were introduced.

When contestant four came out he nearly flipped out. It was that girl with two hair colors dressed in pink. He didn’t think he would of seen that pretty girl again. The girl seemed to notice his eyes on her and faced him with a smile. The announcer seemed to notice this and focused the camera on both him and the girl.

“Oh, it seems Nicolas has fallen for the foreign beauty of Lilycove City! Competitor number four, Gwendolyn Hitachi, the fair maiden that stings like a Beedrill!” Oh god if he could die, he wishes he could just drop dead now. This was embarrassing. Gwen didn’t think so, she seemed to giggle at the extra attention.

“Today, we’ll have three events, the hurdle dash, relay run and disc catch! Extra points will be handed out in the end, what for? Who knows! Just do your best! So who will be the best? Who will be the worst? Everyone get out there and win!”


	9. Part One: Chapter Nine

“And next up. . . the prize for effort! The Pokemon that failed the most. . .” Nick made a face. Why would you even award anyone for failing? That’s like spitting in their face. “Nicolas’s Brave!”

Oh Arceus. That’s just embarrassing.

“With all the bonus points handed out, let’s count our totals from today’s three events!” The color coordinated scoreboards rose slowly as points were added on to initial scores. The boards would stop three times, once for each event.

In the end Nick sighed. Third place wasn’t all that bad for a first try but he did definitely need some practice. Also he needed to focus more. The foreign girl, Gwen, didn’t help that. . . The medal was awarded to the second contestant, confetti was launched and showered the winner. Cheering died out as the athletes left the field for the lockers. Nick took a quick shower and changed back into his usual clothes. Outside of the lockers he found Kairi, looking a bit upset.

“H-hey.. it’s nothing to worry about. . . it’s o-”

“I lost Simon. . . can’t believe that!”

Oh. Simon again. Nick sighed. He was worried about Simon as much as Simon’s mother was but when it came Kairi it seemed like the only thing on her mind half of the time any more.

“Oh. . .” he awkwardly rubbed his arm, waiting for her to say something. To acknowledge him. But that never came. He felt so dishearten. As soon as she learned Black jumped him she paid attention but now?

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Gwen smiled, walking up to the duo. Nick jumped, startled by the foreign trainer.

“O-oh, hey. . .” Gwen reached into her coat pocket and presented the pair with her PokeDex.

“I was informed if I came to Johto it would be in my best interests to travel with a boy by the name of Nicolas Sakati and Kairi Miller.”

“Who told ya that. . ..?”

“Professor Oak of course,” Gwen smiled. “I think it would be beneficial if we traveled together.” Kairi shrugged, she saw nothing wrong with the girl. She seemed to be in good shape, thus obviously a good trainer (according to her books at least.) and she was professor recommended and trusted.

“Well, I don’t have a problem, what about ya Nick?” he blinks. Now he matters? He sighs, shrugging slightly.

“I. . . I don’t have a problem with it, I guess. Professor Oak is a reliable man. He wouldn’t hand out something as important as a PokeDex to anyone.”

“Than it’s settled! Ya get to travel with us!”

“Great,” Gwen smiled, looking pleased.

* * *

“Ah, my dear Suicune, soon! Soon I, the great mystery man Eusine, shall free you and your brethren from your stone prisons!” the tuxedo clad man preached with enthusiasm about how he was going to free the pokemon. Not far off someone eavesdropped. They eyed down to the knife in their hand before glancing back to Eusine with a bored look.

What an idiot. . . he hated that he had to waste time dealing with him but he could not afford the return of the legendary beast trio. The figure moved, his feet lightly scuffled against the floor and it was enough to alert the tuxedo clad man. He reached for a pokeball but a sharp stab to his wrist stopped him. His assailant moved quick, slitting his throat.

The Suicune enthusiast fell to the ground, making some sort of noise on the floor.

“What a waste of my time.”

* * *

_Today, at five am, the gym leader of Ecruteak was doing his usual rounds in the burned Brass Tower when a body was found in the basement level of the tower. Despite the damage and mutilation to the body, the body has been identified as Eusine of Celadon City. There’s no clear answer who did it, but the body has a ‘R’ carved into it, a sign of a Team Rocket kill._

_Has Team Rocket truly returned after all these years or is this just a copycat kill, trying to scare innocent people?_

* * *

Kairi turned off the TV. Well, that was a fine and dandy way to start the day. . . she sighed. The blond rancher looked between the top bunk bed and single bed, both Gwen and Nick were still asleep. She decided it would not hurt to take a small look around the city. Kairi left the room to shower and dress before leaving the center.

She chose to visit the Kimono Dance Theater, it was not far away from the center and after her previous two encounters maybe she should visit them. They seemed to know about her but she knew nothing about them. . .

She entered the dance studio to be greeted with an. . . interesting sight. A Rocket grunt was on stage, grabbing at the kimono girl on stage despite her protests. It was an uncomfortable sight for everyone there to witness it. Kairi grew angry, she ran up the stairs, up on stage and clonked the Rocket square in the jaw. The man let go of the red and orange clad kimono girl, who quickly took refuge behind Kairi, to cradle his jaw. He seemed surprised that Kairi could hit that hard. He scowled.

“The hell you think you are doing bitch?”

“Ya harassing that poor gal! I ain’t gonna stand here and do nothin’!”

“You think you can take me punk?!”

“I’ve beaten a lot of ya!” Kairi let Apollo take the stage. The man stared at the determined egg pokemon before laughing like a mad man.

“You going to try and fight me with that litt-” he had no chance to finish his sentence. Apollo had thrown himself at the man with a headbutt, his spiked head slammed into the man’s stomach, knocking the air out of him. The man stumbled back and Kairi jumped forward to knock him square in the face once more. The man was knocked out, laying uselessly on the floor. The crowd, which Kairi noted to be composed of young kids, elderly adults and young ladies, cheered for her.

Kairi turned back to the kimono girl. The young lady looked near in tears but utterly relieved that someone came to her aid.

“That was excellent. . . every kind and strong. . . you are very good at raising pokemon too.” she giggled to herself. “That person does know what to look for in people. . .” Kairi raised a brow. “Oh no, oh no, don’t mind me. That was just me talking to myself.”

“Of you say so. . .”

Well, she wasn’t either of the Kimono girls encountered before but just as strange as them. The young lady excused herself to clean up before continuing her show. Kairi glanced back to the grunt with a sigh. She should probably call the cops on this loser. On her way out an old man handed her an HM 03; Surf as a thank you for saving the poor kimono girl. She gratefully accepted the item with a smiled.

Kairi returned to the PokeCenter after reporting and watching the struggling grunt get taken away by the proper authorities. She noted Nick talking to someone with Gwen at his side. The guy he was talking to seemed to be pleased, as she came closer she could hear something like ‘you remind me of a friend’. The young man waved goodbye and walked off.

“Gee Nick, what was that about?”

“That guy. . . he’s Bill! The maker of the Pokemon Storage system! A-And he had found an Eevee, it had no trainer or anything and he didn’t need it, so I asked for it and he gave it to me!”

“Golly, that’s super lucky Nick! Eevees are super rare and expensive to get!”

“I know!” he beamed with joy, a first time in a while. Kairi smiled on the outside but she was fuming. It was all Black’s fault Nick was so depressed an’ upset lately. She was gonna beat that jerk in the face when she got the chance!

“Are ya ready for yer battle today Nick?”

“Ah. . . after the news report I wanted. . . to wait a little while. I think the leader should have some time to grieve for his friend before being thrust back into battle.”

“That’s awfully kind of ya Nick.” the boy smiled and scratched his neck.

“It’s a respectable thing to do. . . seeing someone you love. . . dead is painful.” Kairi frowned. Simon had once mentioned Ms. Locke wasn’t Nick’s real mom -- in fact she was more like an aunt as a lifelong friend of his mother. His real mother passed away when he was about six or so and he had picked up her maiden name as his last name when she died and his father never returned home. As his godparent, Ms. Locke took him under her wing and started to take care of him, which was when his and Simon’s bond first formed.

Kairi pats her friend on his head with a smile. The moment came to a sudden halt as Gwen gasped. Her Kirlia had freed itself from its pokeball and it’s pink horn was glowing. Gwen and her emotion pokemon took off running, startled Kairi followed and Nick trailed behind all the way to Brass Tower, otherwise known as Burned Tower. The tower had suffered severe fire damage a hundred and fifty years ago and only the first floor and the basement remained as a result. A gaping hole in the group provided some light if one was to visit the basement down below. Pieces of burned ruble and beams of wood lay strewn about here and there and the floor creaked ever so often.

“Brass Tower. . .? Why would Gwen come ’ere?”

“I don’t know but she had this look on her face. . .”

“A look?”

“She was. . . very serious about something. . .”

“Serious huh. . . well, I’m gonna ‘elp her! We’re friends afta all!” Kairi once more rushes off with Nick perusing her. Dianna’s glowing horn acted as a beacon for the friends, they rushed to pokemon and trainer to find that they were not alone. Gwen had confronted Black. Kairi forced herself in front o Black while tightly clutching a pokeball. She pointed an angry finger at her rival.

“Black! Ya finally show yer face once more!” he raised a brow.

“You’re eager to see me for once. What a surprise. . .”

“Only cause I’m gonna make ya pay for stabbin’ Nicky in the leg! No one hurts ma friends!”

“Stab in the leg? I never-” Black raised a brow as it took a moment to sink in what he was being accused of now. “Stab in the leg? Really? That’s what you-” he was interrupted as Kairi let Apollo fly, once more headbutting the enemy in the stomach. “Oof! What the hell you bitch?! Did you throw a freaking football at me!?”

“Shut ya mouth! It’s time to pay!”

“Jesus. Of all the weaklings to get as a rival I get a fucking psycho like you.” Black muttered, letting his Houndoom out. The devil dog hissed, crouching down and ready to pounce. The dog did not strike fear into Apollo. The egg pokemon waited for a command, Kairi whipped her arm into the air and Apollo attacked with a yawn that was followed with a headbutt.

“Who the hell said I was ya rival? I don’t want anythin’ ta do with ya!”

“Kinda too late for that bitch.” Kairi scowled, swapping Apollo for Mona, a Smeargle she acquired on her return trip from Azalea Town. “Houndoom, use that loser pokemon as a chew toy with fire fang!” Kairi drew an X into the air, Mona nodded. Jumping directly into the line of fire of the Houndoom to take the brute of the attack. Black raised a brow for a mere second before it hit him what Kairi had planned. Smeargle were painter pokemon, they could observe any attack and replicate it. “Nice trick Kairi, but it will be a pointless effort! Crunch!” Kairi waved her arm and the Houndoom was smacked with an iron tail before it could ruthlessly bite down on Mona. The dog was downed with a direct attack to it’s head. Black begrudgingly returned the pokemon and replaced it with his Breloom.

As the battle waged fury rose once more in Black. Ridiculous tact, ridiculous bitch, ridiculous pokemon. So why the hell was she winning?! She was the loser! She was the weakling! So why the fuck was she winning?!

With his last pokemon down Black snapped. He pulled his switchblade from his jacket pocket and rushed for the girl. Dianna moved without a command, knowing this was a friend of her master that was about to be attacked, and disarmed Black by shooting him with a psychic attack.

“Didja. . . didja just try to attack me?” Kairi took a step backwards. The floorboards creaked and suddenly gave away under her feet, taking Gwen and Nick with her. The trio let out a yell as they plummeted to the darkness below. The redhead scoffed, stowing away his fallen knife.

“What are you doing falling into a hole, dumbass? Well, serves you right!”


	10. Part One: Chapter Ten

Thankfully no one was injured from the fall. A little sore, but other than that they were fine. Kairi glanced up, staring at the hole in the floor (roof?) that caused them to fall. She scowls at it for a moment before noting the ladder. She’s suddenly thankful to know that her ‘rival’ was not that much of an ass to knock it over, wreck it or steal it somehow. Then again, he probably assumed they all died like the asshole he was. Kairi sighs. She makes her way to Nick as Gwen rises. Nick groans and cradles his head.

“Are ya hurt Nicky?”

“J-just a little. . . it’s just my head though. . .” Kairi helps her friend to his feet and they make their way to the ladder when Kairi hears something. She pauses her footing to look around.

“What was that?”

"Nick," Gwen moaned, catching up to the two. "Did Black really stab you?"

"W-what?" The boy sputtered. "Of course he did!"

"Really?" Gwen cocked a brow. “‘Cause he seemed really surprised when he was accused of stabbing you."

"H-h-he stabbed me!" Nick barked.

"Sush ya two." Kairi hissed. "I ‘ear somethin’!" The twinkling sound returned and Kairi strained her ears. Her eyes finally located the apparent source, a trio of statues. "Statues. . .?"

"You heard statues?" Nick looked at his friend oddly. "Kairi, did you bump your head?"

"We all bumped our heads Nick."

"I mean worse than anyone else!”

“Sush!” Kairi repeated. She leans Nick against Gwen and makes her way to the center of the room for a better look. Her calloused hand reached out and touched the snout of the beast with a hexagon crest. The surface rippled like pebbles across the water. Kairi’s mouth hung agape as the ripples began to glow and reach the other three statues despite the fact they were not touching.

“Um. Kairi, what’s going on?”

“I donno. . .” Oddly, she did not feel afraid. Startled, maybe, but not afraid. The rock suddenly shattered and three beasts stood there. One of a lion-like nature, a tiger and one with resemblance of a dog. Each creature let out a roar before departing through the hole in the upper floors, the dog like one lingered to stare at Kairi, who’s mouth hung agape, before turning to the sky and letting out a roar that caused the rain to fall. The pokemon jumped away leaving the pre-teens stupefied.

“What just happened”

“I-I don’t know. . .”

“Let’s just go to the PokeCenter and rest. . .”

“Alright. . .”

* * *

Nightfall came and in it’s wake the rain still fell with ferocity. At this hour the whole city was asleep, except for two figures. Two very familiar figures, Simon and Black.

“The murder. . . that was your work. Wasn’t it? And then you proceeded to frame that grunt, correct?”

“You know me so well Simon.” Black laughed. “I mean the murder detail. Yes, that was all me. That idiot was unrelated but became a useful scapegoat. I guess he should fondle girls more often.” Simon scowled.

“You asshole.”

“Yes, yes, I’m so terrible.” he scoffed. “Tell me something I don’t know.” Black’s face soon fell into a frown. “Too bad it wasn’t that bitch of a rival. Someone as weak and useless as her should be dead. . .” Black suddenly flipped his switchblade open and stabbed the blade into Simon’s stomach. Nothing vital but still painful. “You’ll do in her place though!”

* * *

_Kairi. . . Kairi. . . wake up dear. . ._

Sheets pooled around the blonde girl’s waist as she pulled herself upright. She looked around. Nick was asleep in his bed and after climbing up the bunk bed ladder she found Gwen dead asleep. She curiously tilted her head. Where had that voice come from?

The door suddenly creaked open. Was the voice coming from outside the room? Kairi hobbled into the hall but found no one but the front door of the center open. As far as she knew the center was locked at night. Maybe she should find Nurse Joy and tell her the doors were open. . .

_Kairi. . . come here. . . come outside. . ._

Steps came to a halt. Kairi obeyed the voice feeling enticed. The voice continued to whisper to her and she followed the voice, leading her to the base of Burned Tower where she witnessed Black shove Simon onto his back, climb onto him with a twisted look and wrapped his hands around the neck of her dear friend.

Without even thinking of the consequences Kairi swung her arm across the horizon. The collective puddle water came together, creating a whip of water and whipped Black across his face. Startled, he let go of Simon and took a hobbled back.

He recognized that kind of assault. He knew what hit him. The only problem was that it shouldn’t even be possible. He was taken back as the attacker came running up. Kairi. It was Kairi of all people. He felt conflicted, angry, annoyed and yet smug.

“I guess I made the right choice when I claimed you as my rival. A bitch you maybe, but you’re amazing.” With a laugh Black ran off into the shadows. Kairi paid him no heed. She tried to shake her friend, begging him to wake up. Her hand moved to his stomach when she noted a dark patch on the wet jacket. To her horror she found blood. She began to panic. What was she to do now? Where was the doctor? Who was she to go to at this hour?!

“Is someone out here?” a light suddenly shined on her and Simon. Wincing at the sudden light she looked to the face of her apparent savior. It was a monk. He kneeled down to Simon and frowned.

“He is bleeding a lot. . . What happened to him?”

“I-I don’t know. . .! I just heard a voice a-a-and I followed it!” The monk could see this girl was quite hysterical and not the cause of the boy’s injuries. He held a hand up to silence her. “C-can ya ‘elp ‘em?”

“Yes, please, bring him into our tower. We will do everything we can to help your friend. . . Once he’s better and you calm down you can explain what happened.” Kairi smiled gratefully. She lifted Simon onto her back and followed the monk.

* * *

Pidgeies chirped outside his window for the rainfall had finally passed over the night. Simon grumbled to himself and he rolled in the futon laid out on the tatami flooring. His eyes suddenly snapped open. Futon? Tatami flooring?

Simon quickly sat up to make his escape when he noticed what he was wearing. They looked like the robes of the sages he saw in town. A light white robe under a heavy navy blue with a sash knotted around his waist, loosely no less. A throbbing pain in his side caused the reels in his mind to remind him why he was in pain. Yes. He tried to confront that. . . person when he attacked him. Why did he stop though. . .?

As Simon pondered the question Kairi entered the room dressed in red hakama and a white haori, under her arm was Simon’s clothes all cleaned and stitched up. The young lady smiled.

“Good mornin’ Simon.” Simon went stiff for a second before glaring at the girl.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I stayed the night with the monks. . . after. . . you know, you were hurt.” Simon sighed. Why the hell was she so reckless to jump into a fight with that asshole? He shook his head, grabbing his clothes as he climbed to his feet. Kairi sighed, seeing her friend was ready to leave. “Wait. . . Simon, why would Black hurt ya? Is it ‘cause yer my friend?” Kairi sighed. “That might be it. . . Nicky said he stabbed ‘em too. . . I can’t believe such a jerk claims to be my rival!” Simon was suddenly swamped with horror as the pieces came together. Rival. He was her self proclaimed rival. No. Not him. Anyone but him.

“Stay away from him.”

“What?”

“Black! Stay away from him!” Kairi furrowed her brows. She got some genuine concern out of her friend but over Black of all things?

“It’s not like I’m followin’ him Simon. That creep is followin’ me! Besides I’m perfectly fine. I got nothin’ to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about?! That asshole is a murderer and a psychotic sociopath stabbing con-artist!”

“Oh c’mon Simon! I’m fine!” Simon was shaking. Was it with anger? Fury? Fear? No one could tell.

“Go home Kairi!” he almost regretted those words as soon as they came out of his mouth.

“What. . .?” Kairi’s face held no emotion. It was simply blank, masking her feelings. Sadly, her voice did not mask how she felt. It said everything. Heartbroken and distressed.

“You. . . you’re not. . . a good trainer. You belong on your stupid farm! You never should have left it in the fi-!” He never finished that phrase. Kairi struck him in the face with enough force that he stumbled back. He winced. He was expecting a hit, not one backed with that much force.

“Don’t say that Simon. . .! Don’t ever say that! There’s nothin’ for me on that ranch! I don’t wanna to stay there, I don’t wanna work there till I die! I want to see the world! You know that. . .” She fell to her knees, tears welding up in her eyes. “You know that. . .”

“No. You don’t want to see the world. You’d never be able handle it.” He spoke softly. His instincts screamed to comfort her but he bit his lip and climbed to his feet. He briskly brushed past her, as he opened the door to the room he glanced back once more. “Return to the ranch Kairi. Life is better for you there then it is out here. Our friendship was a mistake. It was a mistake to encourage you to leave home. . . everything was.”

“E. . .everything?”

“Everything.” he repeated. “It’s over Kairi. You are better fit in a life of obscurity,” he clenched the door frame slightly and muttered to himself. “You’ll be safer there. . .” with that said the door closed with a soft noise. Kairi remained on the floor, mind racing over everything Simon said to her. That wasn’t her friend. That wasn’t the Simon she wanted to find. That. . .

Simon couldn’t have become that heartless. It was impossible.


	11. Part One: Chapter Eleven

Simon left Ecruteak a few days back but Kairi was still in a state of sadness because of his words. Neither Gwen or Nick could pry an answer or reason from her which in return bothered the two, more Nick than Gwen. After three days Kairi finally seemed better, she wasn’t as chipper as usual but it was an improvement than before and Nick was finally able to pry answers from her.

“Simon said WHAT?!” Nick demanded

“Ta. . . go back ta the ranch. . .” Kairi numbly repeated. “I still can’t believe he said that. . .”

“I can’t believe that! That’s not Simon!” Nick exclaimed. “An evil clone! That’s what it must be!”

“Well, people do change. . .” Gwen sighed, shrugging her shoulders. She wasn’t good in situations like this being homeschooled and all, thus having a lack of friends. She felt bad for Kairi but that was about it. She had no idea who Simon even was, all she could gather was that he was an acquaintance with the two but he suddenly became a jerk?

“I guess.” Kairi breathed. “C’mon. . . Nick, ya got a battle, right?”

“A battle?” he blinked.

“At the gym. With Morty, right?”

“Oh, no. . . I actually battled him yesterday. . .”

“Really. . .?” Kairi seemed disappointed. “I never got a chance to see ya in action. . .”

“You can watch me fight at the next gym!” he quickly piped up.

“Really?”

“Yeah! But you need to promise to be there!”

“’Course! I’ll be there for sure!” Nick smiled.

“Then, let’s get going! The next leader wont come to me!” Kairi giggled, letting her friend take the lead. Kairi noticed Nick limp and frown. She never did get to punch Black in the face. . . the stupid floor caved in and they all fell. . .

“Does ya leg still hurt?”

“A little. . .”

“Maybe you should get a docta to look at it?”

“I already have, I just. . . need some time. . . you know, to heal.”

“Don’t over work yaself then!”

“Right. I don’t need you to hound me over that. . ..”

“Only outta love!”

* * *

“Oh my god. You again.” Black scoffed. “What are you doing here.”

“Goin ta the city. Why are ya here? Stealin’ more things?”

“Stealing? What, is this guy a thief?”

“Yeah.”

“He lit the professor’s lab on fire.”

“How cruel!”

“I’m right here you know.”

“Just get outta our way!”

“I’m more than happy to comply. Olivine City is a piece of shit, there’s nothing in that city. The Gym Leader even abandoned her post to take care of some shitty sick pokemon in the lighthouse. If it’s sick and useless it should just die! Why bother with i-” And once more Black was punched square in his nose. “Jesus fucking CHRIST. What is wrong with you?!” Kairi just growled.

Black made a run for it but Kairi was close on his heels. Goddamn. She was so pissed off right now. What did he do this time? He ran over a list of things he did within the last twenty four hours but nothing special came to his mind. Clearly she was a crazy bitch.

He jumped the fence into some farm. Moo Moo Farm or something dumb like that. All these farms had shitty names as far as he was concerned. The two made tracks all over the grazing fields until Black ducked behind the house on the property. By the time Kairi rounded it she could not find him, instead she found the owner of the farm.

“Aieeee!”

* * *

“You were chasin’ some boy in my property?!”

“Yes sir, he’s a nasty boy! He attacked ma friends! I had him ‘til he ran behind the house, he was gone!” the farm owner rushed out the house with a shotgun in hand. The wife laughed lightly.

“I’m sorry about my husband, he’s mighty worried about us all now. Many of our Miltanks have gotten sick recently and profits have taken a dive. He musta thought that boy ducked into our barns.”

“I see! That would be bad, Black would scare ‘em poor Miltanks and they would get sicker. . .” Kairi reached into her bag and pulled out her satchel of berries. Luckily they were unharmed. . . she poured the berries onto the table top and handed all the Oran and Sitrus berries she had. “Please take these ma’am, these berries will fix ya Miltanks up in no time!”

“Thank ya for yer kindness Kairi. Please take care. . .” the woman glanced over, she stared at the Houndoom on the floor, curled up. “Kairi, wait.” the blond blinked. Glancing back she watched the woman nudge the dog like pokemon awake. “Take Boomer with ya.” the pokemon looked confused. “He’s a good boy but he’s gettin’ old, we want him ta take one last run. Do you think you can do that for him?”

“. . .Yeah. . . I can do that.” the dog collected its pokeball and walked to Kairi’s side. The woman gave the Boomer one last pet before he exited the house and spat his pokeball up at her feet. Kairi picked up the saliva covered ball with no complaints and cleaned it with her skirt. “Alright, I donno much about ya so ya gonna ‘aveta help me out buddy. I’ll do all I can to help ya.” the pokemon barked. Kairi smiled, petting the pokemon on his head.

“Let’s get going buddy,”

* * *

“Linda darling, I’m home!” Black grinned on making his grand entrance into the girl’s room. Young Linda Banks perked up. The blind girl climbed off her bed and rushed to Black with ease, knowing the layout of her room by heart now. The redhead grinned and pulled her into his arms. “Oh Linda, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you!”

“Yes, it’s been quite a while.” she replied missing the tease in Black’s words. Black laughed, cupping her hand and placing the cheaply purchased keychain in her hand. Thrilled with a gift Linda traced a finger over the small keychain, trying to get an idea of what Black had given her. “Ah. . . it’s so small and cute. Thank you Black.”

“It was no problem, the best for you my dear!” Black casually lead himself to Linda’s bed and threw himself onto it. “So tell me, how have things been going for you since I left?”

“Really good!” Linda smiled. “The doctors said I should start getting results soon.”

“And you shall Linda, for I, the glorious Black, have found what we need to perform the final exam.”

“Really?” Linda gasped.

“Indeed I have a rare healing pokemon! There’s only one problem. . .” Black sighed.

“A problem. . .?”

“It wants you to battle it!”

“Really?”

“They say the bond of trainer and pokemon can be measured in battle, the pokemon thinks that will prove if you're a good or bad person,” he laughed. “Silly isn’t it?” Linda shook her head.

“No, no, that makes perfect sense! How smart!” Black’s brows furrowed and lips tightened into a frown at her response. She was no better than Kairi.

“Oh Black! Where are you my precious little boy?”

“Oh, that’s Mrs. Ariana. . .”

“I see, well, mother is calling me, I must go Linda. Do take care. . .”

“You’re not going away again are you?”

“Sad but I must, we members of the Red Ribbon Committee are always hard at work helping others.”

“Aw, you’re so sweet Black.” with a smug smirk he flicked back his long red bangs.

“You know me too well Linda,” the young man waltzed out the room, calling adieu on his exit and closed the door behind him. He walked down the halls and presented himself to his mother with a bow. The woman was dressed in white and had medium length red hair, her lipstick red lips open, letting out a line of questions. With a laugh he answered them all with the answers she desired, in the end she hugged him, remarking he was just like his father. He simply laughed and replied with an ‘I know.’


	12. Part One: Chapter Twelve

Simon left Ecruteak a few days back but Kairi was still in a state of sadness because of his words. Neither Gwen or Nick could pry an answer or reason from her which in return bothered the two, more Nick than Gwen. After three days Kairi finally seemed better, she wasn’t as chipper as usual but it was an improvement than before and Nick was finally able to pry answers from her.

“Simon said WHAT?!” Nick demanded

“Ta. . . go back ta the ranch. . .” Kairi numbly repeated. “I still can’t believe he said that. . .”

“I can’t believe that! That’s not Simon!” Nick exclaimed. “An evil clone! That’s what it must be!”

“Well, people do change. . .” Gwen sighed, shrugging her shoulders. She wasn’t good in situations like this being homeschooled and all, thus having a lack of friends. She felt bad for Kairi but that was about it. She had no idea who Simon even was, all she could gather was that he was an acquaintance with the two but he suddenly became a jerk?

“I guess.” Kairi breathed. “C’mon. . . Nick, ya got a battle, right?”

“A battle?” he blinked.

“At the gym. With Morty, right?”

“Oh, no. . . I actually battled him yesterday. . .”

“Really. . .?” Kairi seemed disappointed. “I never got a chance to see ya in action. . .”

“You can watch me fight at the next gym!” he quickly piped up.

“Really?”

“Yeah! But you need to promise to be there!”

“’Course! I’ll be there for sure!” Nick smiled.

“Then, let’s get going! The next leader wont come to me!” Kairi giggled, letting her friend take the lead. Kairi noticed Nick limp and frown. She never did get to punch Black in the face. . . the stupid floor caved in and they all fell. . .

“Does ya leg still hurt?”

“A little. . .”

“Maybe you should get a docta to look at it?”

“I already have, I just. . . need some time. . . you know, to heal.”

“Don’t over work yaself then!”

“Right. I don’t need you to hound me over that. . ..”

“Only outta love!”

* * *

“Oh my god. You again.” Black scoffed. “What are you doing here.”

“Goin ta the city. Why are ya here? Stealin’ more things?”

“Stealing? What, is this guy a thief?”

“Yeah.”

“He lit the professor’s lab on fire.”

“How cruel!”

“I’m right here you know.”

“Just get outta our way!”

“I’m more than happy to comply. Olivine City is a piece of shit, there’s nothing in that city. The Gym Leader even abandoned her post to take care of some shitty sick pokemon in the lighthouse. If it’s sick and useless it should just die! Why bother with i-” And once more Black was punched square in his nose. “Jesus fucking CHRIST. What is wrong with you?!” Kairi just growled.

Black made a run for it but Kairi was close on his heels. Goddamn. She was so pissed off right now. What did he do this time? He ran over a list of things he did within the last twenty four hours but nothing special came to his mind. Clearly she was a crazy bitch.

He jumped the fence into some farm. Moo Moo Farm or something dumb like that. All these farms had shitty names as far as he was concerned. The two made tracks all over the grazing fields until Black ducked behind the house on the property. By the time Kairi rounded it she could not find him, instead she found the owner of the farm.

“Aieeee!”

* * *

“You were chasin’ some boy in my property?!”

“Yes sir, he’s a nasty boy! He attacked ma friends! I had him ‘til he ran behind the house, he was gone!” the farm owner rushed out the house with a shotgun in hand. The wife laughed lightly.

“I’m sorry about my husband, he’s mighty worried about us all now. Many of our Miltanks have gotten sick recently and profits have taken a dive. He musta thought that boy ducked into our barns.”

“I see! That would be bad, Black would scare ‘em poor Miltanks and they would get sicker. . .” Kairi reached into her bag and pulled out her satchel of berries. Luckily they were unharmed. . . she poured the berries onto the table top and handed all the Oran and Sitrus berries she had. “Please take these ma’am, these berries will fix ya Miltanks up in no time!”

“Thank ya for yer kindness Kairi. Please take care. . .” the woman glanced over, she stared at the Houndoom on the floor, curled up. “Kairi, wait.” the blond blinked. Glancing back she watched the woman nudge the dog like pokemon awake. “Take Boomer with ya.” the pokemon looked confused. “He’s a good boy but he’s gettin’ old, we want him ta take one last run. Do you think you can do that for him?”

“. . .Yeah. . . I can do that.” the dog collected its pokeball and walked to Kairi’s side. The woman gave the Boomer one last pet before he exited the house and spat his pokeball up at her feet. Kairi picked up the saliva covered ball with no complaints and cleaned it with her skirt. “Alright, I donno much about ya so ya gonna ‘aveta help me out buddy. I’ll do all I can to help ya.” the pokemon barked. Kairi smiled, petting the pokemon on his head.

“Let’s get going buddy,”

* * *

“Linda darling, I’m home!” Black grinned on making his grand entrance into the girl’s room. Young Linda Banks perked up. The blind girl climbed off her bed and rushed to Black with ease, knowing the layout of her room by heart now. The redhead grinned and pulled her into his arms. “Oh Linda, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you!”

“Yes, it’s been quite a while.” she replied missing the tease in Black’s words. Black laughed, cupping her hand and placing the cheaply purchased keychain in her hand. Thrilled with a gift Linda traced a finger over the small keychain, trying to get an idea of what Black had given her. “Ah. . . it’s so small and cute. Thank you Black.”

“It was no problem, the best for you my dear!” Black casually lead himself to Linda’s bed and threw himself onto it. “So tell me, how have things been going for you since I left?”

“Really good!” Linda smiled. “The doctors said I should start getting results soon.”

“And you shall Linda, for I, the glorious Black, have found what we need to perform the final exam.”

“Really?” Linda gasped.

“Indeed I have a rare healing pokemon! There’s only one problem. . .” Black sighed.

“A problem. . .?”

“It wants you to battle it!”

“Really?”

“They say the bond of trainer and pokemon can be measured in battle, the pokemon thinks that will prove if you're a good or bad person,” he laughed. “Silly isn’t it?” Linda shook her head.

“No, no, that makes perfect sense! How smart!” Black’s brows furrowed and lips tightened into a frown at her response. She was no better than Kairi.

“Oh Black! Where are you my precious little boy?”

“Oh, that’s Mrs. Ariana. . .”

“I see, well, mother is calling me, I must go Linda. Do take care. . .”

“You’re not going away again are you?”

“Sad but I must, we members of the Red Ribbon Committee are always hard at work helping others.”

“Aw, you’re so sweet Black.” with a smug smirk he flicked back his long red bangs.

“You know me too well Linda,” the young man waltzed out the room, calling adieu on his exit and closed the door behind him. He walked down the halls and presented himself to his mother with a bow. The woman was dressed in white and had medium length red hair, her lipstick red lips open, letting out a line of questions. With a laugh he answered them all with the answers she desired, in the end she hugged him, remarking he was just like his father. He simply laughed and replied with an ‘I know.’


	13. Part One: Chapter Thirteen

* * *

_**There have been reports of suspicious people seen on the ship.** _

_**The marine patrol has requested that all personnel stay in their rooms for the time being.** _

_**Do not attempt to confront anyone suspicious.** _

_**If you see anyone report them immediately.** _

_**T** _ _**his is for the safety of all of our passengers.  
  
** _

* * *

  
“She’ll make it through this just fine but. . .” The doctor trails off for a moment.

“But what?”

“She’s received quite an amount of damage to her throat. By the looks of it, whoever attacked her used a weapon first and then ordered their pokemon to do the rest, damaging her vocal cords for good To be honestly it’s a miracle that she’s even alive, but maybe whoever attacked her wanted her to live and suffer from these injuries seeing how she had some medical help before we professionals arrived on scene. Still, as I said, she’ll be fine the only problem that remains is that she will live as a mute from now on because of the damage.” Nick couldn’t even speak. His eyes were wide open and focused on the floor with his mouth agape. Gwen could not blame him for such a response. He had known Kairi for quite some time and she was a dear friend to him.

This was quite a shock and it didn’t help that he had to be the one to deliver such news to the girl’s mother. Gwen cursed herself. If she just stayed by Kairi’s side instead of talking to all those people this wouldn’t of happened. Oh well. . . what happened, happened, as unfortunate as it is. . . Griping wouldn’t help a single thing.

The best that either of them could do now was help her communicate. She could work just fine with her pokemon but people would be another story.  
  


* * *

  
“What do you mean the suspect hasn’t been found yet?” Gwen demanded with a stomp of her foot. The coast guards sweated a little.

“We just arrived ma’am. . .” Gwen blinks.

“You. . . just got here? T-Then who the hell were those other coast guards on the ship!?” Could it be? They were in cahoots with the suspects and they snuck them off the ship long ago? Damn it! How could this happen!?

Ah.

But. . . where would they even go? Olivine City seemed to be out of the question with the distance and Cianwood City was no good as well. It was the closest destination and the coast guards came from that direction. How could these people slip past them without being noticed?

Ugh. This was the cops' problem now. She had no reason or place to get tangled up in that when Kairi needed help.

. . .

Apparently more than she thought she would. Gwen crosses the pool deck on her return to the clinic. On the way she runs into Nick, who is frantic for some reason. She raises a brow at his behavior as she inquires what’s wrong and she does not like the answer in the slightest.

“What do you mean Kairi is missing?!”

“I went up to the room to get her a journal, you know, so she could talk to us. . .! I didn’t know she would run away!” Gwen sighs. Kairi, how unpredictable can you be? Well, that answer was questioned when the two heard a loud plunk in the water. Gwen and Nick turned to the ocean to find Kairi crossing the water on the back of Mittens.

“What is she doing?!” Gwen watched Kairi glide across the water to some land formation surrounded by whirlpools. . . why would Kairi go there? What is she thinking?

“What is that?” Gwen asked, pointing out the land formation.

“Wh-what? You mean the whirl islands. . .?”

“Whirl Islands?” Gwen repeats, shuffling through her handbag. “Why would Kairi go there?”

“I don’t really know. . . Maybe Kairi wanted to see if the legend was true. . ..?”

“. . .Legend?”

“It’s just a legend,” Nick sweats. “But it’s said that there were once two countries living on the Whirl Islands and they were at war; over land I believe. Lugia, the guardian of the seas, was upset with the warfare that used lightning bolts to rip the islands apart into four pieces. Lugia then returned to the depths of the Whirl Islands, waiting for a trainer that could show it the bonds of people and pokemon.”

“Why would Kairi go through all that effort for something that might not even be there?” Nick shrugged uselessly.

“I don’t know. . .I just feel like all my friends are drifting apart and I don’t even know them any more.” Gwen gives him a sympathetic look. Honestly, she hasn’t traveled that long with him and Kairi but this is indeed an upsetting situation. She only feels like she’s making it worst when she doesn’t know what to say.

“. . .Things will sort out in time.” she hoped. That upset look on Nick’s face did not belong there. . . even if he’s an ex-mole or something. It doesn’t feel right. Gwen sighs. Pulling a pokeball from her handbag she closes it with a snap. “I’m going after Kairi. I’ll be back soon.”  
  


* * *

  
Kairi runs her hand along the side of the white wood lifeboat. This wasn’t Black’s belongings on the boat. These were Simon’s. She could remember what he was wearing too, a black Italian cut suit jacket and purple tie. The same in this boat. Still, even as she was losing consciousness as a result from Black’s assault against her it was Simon that found her and called for help. She knew that for sure. She could remember his voice. It was so heartbroken and she’s sure he was choking on tears.

No matter what he said before; it was clearly all lies.

He cared.

Kairi collects Simon’s clothes and stows it away in her bag. She returns Mittens to her pokeball before entering the cavern. It’s dark and slick without a single light. Still, with all the running water Kairi can hear someone running.

Kairi lets Wooly, who recently evolved into a Flaaffy, out and commands a flash with the wave of her hand. Wooly understands the command and lights the path for her trainer.

Running up ahead is Simon. He’s tired and out of breath but he cant stop now. Not when Linda is ahead. Furret struck any Rocket’s pokemon before they could hit him with sucker punches and full force slam attacks as Quilava lit the way with the flames on it’s back.

Farther up the path the feared Team Rocket admin Archer was barking orders to the grunts before him. Something about making a delivery. How strange. The delivery seemed to be just five girls in colorful kimonos lined with silver.

“Black, what’s going on?” Linda asked, somewhat fearful of the new environment and startling noises in the distance.

“I’m not so sure Linda. It might be a poacher out for the pokemon!” Black lied. He knew Simon was coming. He did egg him on and dared him to follow him after all. Really, Simon’s efforts to push his friends away in a pathetic attempt to protect them and shield them all from the truth and try and save Linda were so pitiful but utterly hilarious. It was great to watch that traitor squirm.

“Oh no, that’s terrible!”

“Please don’t worry, the guards will keep that terrible person away and I’ll keep you safe.” Linda smiles, blissfully unaware of Black’s twisted grin.

“You’re so kind Black.”

“I suppose I am.”


	14. Part One: Chapter Fourteen

The rope digs into his skin and he grits his teeth. He isn’t going to show weakness against Team Rocket scum. Archer can really only grin at this kid.

“What brings you all the way out here little Simon?”

“You damn well know why I’m here.”

“Oh is it for our dear Linda. Yes, Ariana did mention you two were close since that chance encounter you had years ago.” Simon glares in return. “Oooh, scary.” The adult mocks. He motions to some surrounding Rockets and they drag Simon to his feet. “Come along Simon, Linda is about to embrace her destiny! Not even you should miss out on this!”

* * *

Kairi effortlessly pushes forward, striking down Rockets without word based commands and taking them by surprise. Kairi places her hand on the wall and smoothly makes her way down the natural stone staircase. The deeper she goes the more she wonders if she’s getting closer or farther from Simon but with all the Rocket’s she’s sure she’s getting somewhere.

That’s when she reaches the final room, she can hear the ocean and feel the cool air on her skin. She arrives on the scene of five kimono clad girls dancing in discontent as a silver bell rigs through the air. Waves roared when two more bells began to ring and that’s when Kairi noticed two bells tethered to large stones in the water.

From the waterfall, Lugia bursts forth. If Kairi had a voice she would have screamed, the only thing she can do is trip and make noise. Archer glares at the noise behind him and makes a motion for grunts to investigate. They can’t afford any interruptions now.

“Black, what’s going on?” Linda asks.

“Don’t worry,” he smiles. “The pokemon I told you about is here now. You just need to battle it if you win it will help you with your eyes.”

“Really?”

“Would I lie to you Linda?”

“No, you wouldn’t Black.” Linda calmly replies with a smile.

Kairi has no idea what’s going on. Why is Black here? Why is that girl from the ship here? Why is that pokemon here? Is that Lugia? Who cares, where’s Simon? All of that had to be held off for now, she lets Boomer out of his pokeball and the hell dog bites a grunt in the leg and drags him to the floor. Kairi punches another in the nose, followed with a swift kick to the gut.

Kairi forces her way down the stairs and closer to the scene where Black meets her half way. He looks pretty fed up with her presents and she could say the same about him.

“Damn it, was cutting your throat open not enough for you?” Kairi is obviously unable to reply. Black grunts. His own plan to shut her up and instilling fear into her has not only backfired but it’s also pissing him off. Jesus Christ, what a rip. “Get out of here Kairi, you can’t stop us now.” She scowls in response, motioning for Boomer to attack but Black counterattacks with his own Houndoom. Kairi lets the pokemon duke it out and slams her fist into Black’s nose once more.

“You goddamn bitch!” Black pulls at her hair, pulling her close to him so he can get her in a headlock. Kairi bites his forearm making him howl. Damn that bitch had some sharp teeth. She even managed to tear his coat. He gives her an incredulous look. 

Simon can only take this as his opportunity to do something, so he throws his weight backwards, flinging himself and the taken off guard Archer backwards into the rocky wall of the caverns. The adult is dazed long enough for Simon to break away and collect his pokeballs. A Golbat bursts from a pokeball and tears the ropes from his wrists and chest.

Simon rushes past Kairi, who manages to break free from Black’s hold and pin him down in the shallow waters to punch his face in, and leaps up the stone stairs.

"Linda! Stop!"

". . .Simon? Simon is that you?"

"Stop it Linda! If you beat Lugia you’ll. . .!" but he was already too late, Linda’s Luxio delivered the final strike to the pokemon and the legend fell. Simon’s eyes go wide and his outstretched hand falls to his side. He can vaguely hear a body being thrown and dropped into the water. Black shoves past him and laughs the whole time as a glow envelops Linda.

"Oh, so close Simon! So close! You tried so hard to save your precious friends but you’ve failed once more! You should get a medal for that; most attempts and failures to save a person, then again, that’s the only thing you ever were capable of! Failure!" Simon clenches his fists in anger.

"Shut up Sean!" Simon barks. "I’m so sick of your shit. I won’t let you get away with this! I will beat you!"

"I’m afraid that’s impossible," Sean smirks. "I’m the older brother, clearly I’m smarter, stronger and better than you in every way." Kairi slowly sized the two boys up. Sean. Sean Hoffmann. The Heir of Team Rocket, childhood bully and unofficial rival to Steel Selma. To think. . . that’s his identity and ties to Simon all along. His older. . . brother? No wonder he never spoke about it. “You tried and tried Simon but once more you have failed!” Sean cackled. “So long we searched for a perfect container for Lugia, father wanted to exploit you Simon but we couldn’t find you! Shinjiro hid you well. So we searched for someone else and Linda just fell into our hands as we used the Red Ribbon Committee as a guise to go region to region. She was kind, big hearted and gentle but such a naive fool. She was all too easy to manipulate. She trusted me all too well, she was like putty in my hands, easy to mold into a soul user!” Simon’s face is red with anger, wishing he could blow up his blood brother with his angry gaze.

“You know, if it wasn’t for that Rune incident you wouldn’t even be aware of this. You could have lived your final years in blind happiness.” Sean grins. “It would have been fun for me. I’d knock down the door to your simple house and rip apart your family one by one before killing you.” The grin falters a little. “But, then again, Kairi is a problem she would have made it challenging but she’s still a problem. A blood descendant of the original Suicune and with access to plenty of Suicune’s powers. Her and those shitheads in Kanto are the only problems to our plans.”

“Banette! Curse!” Kairi is suddenly struck in her lower left leg. It’s a hot burning sensation and whatever it is it rips right through the muscle. Suddenly struck in the chest by an invisible force, she falls backwards and the pokemon jumps on the giant nail piercing her leg, nailing her to the ground in the shallow waters. She bites back the scream that would never come. Simon gasps and runs to his friend only to be knocked over by yet another one of Sean’s pokemon. One set of claws dig into his face, the other into his backside.

“Absol, keep him still. Let him watch his friend’s death! Let him realize the depth of his failures!” Banette giggles devilishly as it prepares another needle.

"B-Black!" Linda gasps. "What are you doing?!" For a moment he forgot she was even there. He was getting a little too into knocking off Kairi once and for all. Man, he hated that nice guy act he put on for her. Well, not like it mattered anymore, Linda would finally see his true colors.

Sean twists his body to face Linda. With the transformation of soul Linda’s black hair grew out into long waves of white silver. Her lithe body was in a sleeveless kimono secured around her body with a blue obi. Black tights covered her legs, long white tabi and black okobo sandals with blue straps. If he even cared he would have thought she was beautiful with that terrified and confused look but so magnificent as the container of Lugia.

“Nothing important Linda. These bastards finally are getting what they deserve.”

“I-I don’t understand Black! You’re so nice. . . why would you resort to violence?”

“You must be the dumbest broad I ever met. Did you honestly think anything I ever said was serious?” Sean speaks with such a casual tone as his fingers wrap around Linda’s long hair. “I’m not nice. I take what I want. I destroy what I want. And you know why? Because I’m a Rocket. And you my dear, are a tool of Team Rocket.” Linda’s steely eyes go wide with bubbling tears. She struggles to speak. It can't be true! Black took care of her for years and he was always so kind. . .! Even with Simon on the floor with a pokemon standing on top of him and with that poor girl laying on the floor. This. . . just cannot be true. . .

“A-a tool for Team Rocket? N-no, that. . . that can be. . . everything. . . you said. . .. you. . .” Sean grinned at that disheartened look on her face. Man. That was satisfying.

“I said a lot of things.” Sean smirks. Yeah. He did. He never meant it although. Why would he? She was his tool to mold and build. She was a hopeless blind girl that clung to him and all those smooth lies. It was too easy to get her to fall in love with him. Easy to earn her trust. Easy to make her give herself up to him. All he had to do was tell her everything she wanted and she gave herself up to him in every way possible. Linda was just too easy to control.

What an ugly hopeless girl.

“Now, Banette. Finish the job, use Curse!”


	15. Part One: Chapter Fifteen

He has shown her his true colors. . . but, even with the evidence before she doesn’t want to believe it. This can’t be the one she loved before her with that twisted grin as he puts in the order to kill a girl and force Simon to watch it. It must be a lie. A trick. Something. . .. anything but truth.

No. . .but this. . .

It is ugly and painful but this is reality.

“Bella, bite! Chiko, double kick!” It must be some form of godly intervention when a Granbull appears, catching Sean’s Banette in it’s powerful jaw and a Combusken kicks the Absol right off Simon’s backside. The needles vanish and Simon runs over to Kairir's side, cradling her close to his body as he glares at his older brother. The two pokemon guard the blonde and the black haired boy.

Sean’s face falls but quickly rearranges itself into amusement when Gwen appears.

“Well, well, look who has come to grace me with her presents, Gwendolyn Hitachi.” Gwen does not respond but her hands twitch slightly. She seemed to be resisting the urge to punch him in the face. “I never thought you would come to see me.”

“Why wouldn't I?”

“It’s a surprise that you are here. Gwendolyn Hitachi, the daughter of two of Hoenn’s top researchers. Why would she come all the way out here? Especially after the news.”

“What did you do to her?” Simon spits. He sure as hell doesn’t know this girl but hell if he sits here to let Sean make another person suffer.

“Oh my brother, it was not my doing this time. It was mother’s doing. It was a little fire, but the entire Hitachi estate went up in it! I’m sure her parents as well. . . did you come all this way to Johto for revenge? Did you not even give yourself a moment to mourn?”

“They are fine. I came here of my own reasons. You Rockets have stolen something important to us. A family member.”

“Still alive?” Sean was obviously disappointed that his taunt did not falter the girl’s strong stance. “I see. Mother will be furious with such a failure.”

“Where is he?” she asks slowly, keeping a cool face on.

“He?” Sean curiously repeats.

“Atlas. Where is Atlas.”

“Oh, that’s why you came. For that thing.” Gwen scowls. How dare he call Atlas a thing. He was her family member! “Well, I cannot answer that.”

“Why not?”

“Father is acquainting himself with this ‘Atlus’ of yours. . . He will be quite the benefactor to our cause, whether he wants to or not.”

“Your cause? And what the hell is that?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Sean laughs. “We are Team Rocket! Do you pathetic worms even understand what that means? Raid On the City, Knock Out, Evil Tusks. We will destroy everything, steal from everyone and we will build from the ruble. For so long we have searched for the power of Soul and when Team Rune were dumb enough to try and copy our plan, an in return we stole their data and only improved ours. Without a doubt, we will be unstoppable!”

“That’s impossible!” Gwen snaps. “The power of Soul can only work if there’s a bond or connection between a pokemon and its user! Atlus won’t help you!”

“Or so you think! Our data has improved so much that we have found a way to forcefully meld two beings into one if one tries to deny the fusion!”

“W-what. . .?”

“We’ve had many research sources and the most brilliant man in Johto aiding our cause. . . There’s nothing you can do. . .” Sean casts a glare to Kairi. Simon holds her tighter, cradling her head to his chest and preparing to use himself as a shield if he must. “You can’t. But she can. Kairi Miller. . . the one giant flaw and miscalculation to everything we’ve worked for. Your family hid its roots well for so long.”

“What the hell are you talking about Sean?” Simon demands hoarsely. Sean shakes his head.

“It would crush your feeble mind brother. Far too advanced and abstract for you to understand. I’m starting to think that even she doesn’t understand and the mark of her powers are mere coincidences.”

“. . ..Powers?”

“Ask her. . .. Oh wait.” Sean smirks devilishly. Simon glares in return. Another tease of course. He won’t talk and Kairi most certainly cannot. What a poor pitiful girl. He lets out laughter, completely missing the teary eyed but furious Linda behind him. She was still upset but this is too much for her. Yes he lied to her but. . . hell if she lets him hurt Simon and his friends!

Linda slowly raises her hands and a torrent of water flies from her open palms. Sean propels forward and slams into the stone floor, smashing his face. His nose is bleeding and crooked. He places a hand to his nose and snaps his head in the direction behind him.

Linda?

Oh right.

She was here too.

. . .

Wait a minute. . . Linda? It was Linda that attacked him?

“Linda, what the fuck was that?”

“. . .You made me mad.”

“That’s no reason to hit me.”

“Yes it is. You are a terrible horrible person.” Sean groans, rolling his head in a dramatic and exaggerated manner before throwing his arms up.

“Linda. Baby.” He walks right up to her and strikes her across her face. Linda loses her footing and falls flat on her ass. “Learn your place. You are a tool. You have no right or reason to act like you have free will.” Sean turns away, brushing back his red bang from his wet and bloody face.

“Now. Where was I. . .?” Sean clomped down the stairs and refocused his gaze on his younger brother and the blonde in his arms. “Ah yes. . .” He reaches into his coat and pulls out a gun that shines in the moonlight seeping into the roofing. “Removing the error in our equation.” He points the gun right at the pair. He readies the trigger and pulls but completely misses. Linda had tackled him from behind and sent the two of them falling down the stairs and into the shallow water once more.

“Simon! Run!”

“Linda! You insufferable bitch!” Sean manages to get one leg away and slams it against Linda’s face but she tries her hardest to hold her ground. She begs for Simon to leave once more and Gwen takes action, letting Dianna perform a teleport to evacuate as many people as she can. In a great flash of white they are gone.

* * *

Everything seemed to blur from there. Gwen went to pick up the medicine in Kairi’s place, and it took Gwen hours to get the pharmacist to give her the medicine since she was not Kairi and did not fit the description of the blonde girl. Simon took himself and Kairi to the clinic, the boy was covered in minor scars while there was a gaping hole in Kairi’s leg. Nick on the other hand, was left alone and left at a loss at the current situation.

. . .

Well, he supposed he could go to the gym alone. . .

Geez. What happened? This was supposed to be an adventure. Not a nightmare. They were supposed to go on a pokemon adventure together and have a good time, meet new friends, train pokemon and. . . just be happy. Two years ago Simon suddenly changed into an angry and aggressive person ever since his trip to Kanto and Kairi was hardly paying him attention and now she couldn’t even speak. Then there was the mysterious Gwen. . . Why was she even here?

Was it really so hard for him to keep happiness in his life?


	16. Part One: Chapter Sixteen

“Nick’s been gone for a while.” Gwen comments when she notes Kairi anxiously staring at the clock. Simon stands from his chair and quietly makes his way to the door of the clinic. Now it’s just the two of them. Gwen wishes she could scream finally.

“Kairi. . .” she begins. “You know, Nick gets a lot of phone calls, right?” the mute nods. “I’m starting to suspect they. . . are not good calls. Nick always looks tense and nervous when they come in. I believe someone is harassing him.” Kairi shakes her head. That’s so silly. If Nick was in trouble he would tell her!

. . .

Right?

Sure, things have changed but Nick would still talk to her. . .

Who the hell is she trying to kid? She doesn’t even know her own friends any more. It’s still a lot to take in that Simon was from Team Rocket, even if it ashamed him to admit that. And Nick. . . he’s just. . . distant. She’s not even sure why? Is what Gwen saying true? Is someone harassing and possibly threatening Nick? Is that why he’s distant? Why was this happening to them?

Maybe she should have gone out and looked for him instead of Simon. The question, however, was how was she supposed to even approach this?

“You. . ..” Gwen sighs. “I have to head back to Olivine. I’ll be back soon. Don’t do anything drastic while I’m gone.” Why don’t you just tell Kairi not to breathe while you’re at it. Kairi sighs but nods no less. Gwen takes her leave. Time passes and no one returns. Gwen not yet returning makes perfect sense, Simon or Nick? Not so much. Kairi leaves the clinic and asks around for information on her friends once she gets word that neither of them are in the PokeCenter. Her inquires take her to a cove to the northern point of the island.

Much to Kairi’s surprise there was a helicopter hanging around there. How the heck did this get here without anyone noticing? Common sense told her to back away but. . . she did not. She climbs into the helicopter and glances around. There does not seem to be signs of other people about. So, who the heck leaves a perfectly good helicopter unattended?

That’s an answer she wouldn’t learn for a while.

* * *

_“Hello Kairi.” There’s a voice but no one else around her. The world is nothing but white and water that ripples with each footstep._

_“I have a question for you,” She looks around once more but there’s still no one around. Kairi’s eyes look ahead once more and the water before her begins to rise, taking the shape of something familiar. It looks so much like the beast she found in the Burned Tower. “Do you wish to alter the wheels of fate so your friends may find happiness?” Kairi blinks. “The pain they have suffered beforehand cannot be undone but the pain that waits for them in the future can be erased in favor of happiness and unparalleled joy. Are you willing to embrace the power embedded in your bloodline and fight for them?”_

_Kairi looks to her feet. They’re all suffering from a terrible fate. Nick is suffering in silence and those injuries are all lies. They weren’t accidents. Sean was hurting him. . . wasn’t he? Simon came from that bastard’s family, it shamed him so much and he wanted nothing more to protect them even if it seemed mean. And she’s been ignorant, blind and narrowly minded, focusing on only Simon this whole time. If this is her chance to fix it and help her friends she damn will take it. Kairi nods to the watery figure of the pokemon. The pokemon’s ribbons dance melding across the water, melding the liquid into an apple._

_“This is your final chance to back down. Once you eat this fruit there is no going back.” She shakes her head, extending her arms to accept the falling fruit. Kairi handles the fruit in both of her hands. It feels like any other apple but it’s clearly not. It’s transparent and almost looks like it's made out of crystal. Still, if she’s being told to eat it it must be editable. . . Kairi takes a bite from the fruit. It makes a crisp sound like any other from her farm and tastes all the same. Kairi gobbles the fruit in a matter of minutes. Kairi feels a strange numbness at first that soon travels to her eyes. There’s no kind of pain but it’s an odd feeling._

_“Do not worry,” Suicune smiles. “It is the power of your family tree. By devouring that fruit that power is breaking free.” Kairi blinks._

_“It seems you have not been informed of the origins of your powers. It is a long tale but to put it simply, there was a time when there were no pokeballs and to fight trainers would become one with their partner pokemon. My partner and I were among a special group. We were not like others but our partners we’re all killed in cold blood. Only my trainer survived and with her did my powers. In secret she had a family and from it she had a daughter. My powers were passed daughter to daughter which lead to you, Kairi Miller.”_

_That explained why her mother told her to never show her powers. Sean’s sudden interest and attention to her and the woman’s words on the ship all made sense now. They had realized her bloodline before she did._

_“You will soon awaken,” Suicune speaks grabbing her attention. “With an ally in tow we will set a course for Team Rocket base for those dastardly men who have already taken your dear friends from you. Now wake Kairi Miller!”_

_Waves churn and the world spins with a flash of white._

* * *

Kairi’s first instinct was to heave up all the salty water in her system and then she chose to look around. She was in Olivine City.

How did she get here and not drown?

“Kairi? Is that you?” Gwen’s voice rings out. The girl with duo hair color comes rushing over. “W-what? How did you get here?”

Kairi shrugs. Gwen sighs.

“I cannot believe this! Where are the boys?” Kairi looks away after she shakes her head. “They’re gone, aren’t they?” Once the girls are at the PokeCenter Kairi is able to explain the scenario through pen and paper. Gwen looks like she’s ready to have a heart attack.

“Not only do they have the balls to kidnap one of my family members and burn down my family mansion in an attempt to murder my parents they attack Simon and Nick. Unforgivable!” That heart attack is pure rage now. “We’ll rest here and in the morning we will strike where it hurts.”

“I’ve heard rumors that they have a base in a town to the east.” Gwen explains upon noticing her confusion. “It’s a very small and inconspicuous place, it's also a tourist place so it would be a good way to rank in cash.”

Kairi nods with determination. She will save her friends for sure.


	17. Part One: Chapter Seventeen

“Here I got you a soda.”

“It better not be grape.”

“What’s wrong with grape?”

“It tastes like ass.”

“I’d be interested to know how you know what ass tastes like.”

“That’s unimportant. All those grape flavors in drinks and food are fake and taste terrible.”

“Maybe you’re the terrible one.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

If anything, that would be considered to be a casual conversation between Steel Selma, the leader of Kanto’s Soul trio, and Lance of Kanto’s Elite Four. There had been various reports and rumors going around about both suspicious people and activities running around the lake. The duo had spent the last three days camping and waiting for something, some sort of sign. If nothing happens soon this camp out would have been completely useless and a huge waste of time.

Steel whips out her Pokegear but only after fiddling with it for seconds she sighs and pockets it once more.

“Still borked.”

“. . .How long has it been like that?”

“Ever since we started camping.” Lance looks to his pokegear as well, no call can get out or in and the radio is scrambled. If it’s happening to Steel as well, then something is up for sure.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lance gives her a look that’s much like an angry squinted eyes.

“I didn’t think it was important. This is an old pokegear and I thought it was just being an ass.”

“Oh for Christ sake Steel. . .”

“Cut me some slack,” Steel looks over her shoulder from her spot in the tree. She makes a double take when she notices two girls approach. Steel whips out a pair of binoculars from the nearby bag hanging from a stray branch. Lance tries to grab them back since they were inside of his bag and thus his property but Steel just firmly plants one hand on his face and keeps him at bay as she makes her observations. Besides, who gives a shit about who owns what when something is finally happening.

It seems that two young female trainers have approached the lake. The blonde is making vague hand motions to the other and the other girl seems to have a good grasp on what she’s saying. The two unleash a pokemon to cross the water but as soon as they made contact with the surface a Gyarados with shimmering red scales burst from the water. Its jaw snaps with irritation and snarls down at the girls.

“A red Gyarados?” Steel questions out loud.

“A shiny pokemon? That is exceptionally rare. . . but. . . doesn’t something seem off about that pokemon?”

“Kinda. How long could a pokemon like this exist in the lake but not a single report of it exist?” the pokemon in question roars loudly before shooting a hyper beam. The girls skillfully dodge and follow up with their own attacks. Lance looks back to his pokegear. The signal is getting worse. This change did not occur until the red Gyarados breached the water. Was this pokemon somehow acting as a radio tower. . . ?

“It’s emitting some radio waves. . . ?” Steel blinks. She puts on a puzzled face for a moment before a realization hits her. “Hey, remember that base on the Sevii Islands we crashed a year ago?”

“Vaguely.”

“Well, one of the computers had some data on how to use waves or something to force a pokemon to evolve.”

“. . .Then if this is the work of Team Rocket, this Gyarados is the result of their experiments!”

“Bingo, our target is here for sure!” Steel grins, pumping her fist into the air. “Time to take down Team Rocket once and for all!”

“You have some serious beef against Team Rocket, any reason why?” Steel makes a face at Lance. Was he really that uneducated about her and her past? She wasn't exactly shy about how her parents organization and Team Rocket clashed together. Not to mention Giovanni completely fucked up her dad’s left hand.

“That’s another story for another day Lance.” Steel manages to smile, a bit pained although. She looks back to the two girls in the water. They’re holding their ground pretty well with the pokemon. The Porygon lands the final attack allowing for one of the girls to capture the pokemon. The two girls return to land to discuss their capture. Lance places a hand on Steel’s shoulder, informing her he needs to check something in town.

“W-what? Where are you going?”

“The souvenir shop.” he replies as he retreats.

“What.”

“Just bring those girls with you!” Steel can’t believe such an absurd order. Well. If that’s what Lance wants that’s what he’ll get. Steel approaches the girls with a smile only to have a knife pointed at her. She puts her hands in the air to make a point that she was weaponless.

“Hey, put the pointy weapon down. I just want to talk.” The two girls exchange glances before the blonde lowers the knife. She doesn’t close or pocket it though. . . “A-alright. . . now that I’ve got your attention, I would like to request your assistance in a matter plaguing this town.”

“I assume it’s Team Rocket you’re talking about.” The girl with red bangs asks. Oh. They’re smart children. . . Is it right to call them children if they’re a couple years younger than her? Whatever. . .

“Yes, actually.”

“Good, then my sources were correct then.”

“Er. . . Sure. Whatever. My partner and I have been scouting this area for days for a lead. I think he’s found something good in town, so, let’s go meet up with him.” The two girls have a vague conversation for a minute or two before agreeing to help Steel under the condition that they are given the chance to locate their friends in the base hidden in this town. Of course Steel can abide by that. She’s not a jerk after all.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, who are these friends of yours.”

“Nick Sakati and Simon Locke.” Steel stops in mid-step. Face frozen in a wide grin. Simon? Simon Locke? Team Rocket took Simon? Damn it. She was trying to prevent that for years. How did that happen? No. That could wait until later. Saving Simon was the first thing she had to do as soon as she got into that base.

The trio enter the souvenir shop to catch Lance completely demolishing the building with his Dragonite. Steel’s jaw drops and she pulls at her hair. Has Lance gone of the deep end!?

“What the hell are you doing?!” She screams.

“Demolishing this place of course!” Lance looks so proud of his deed of destroying a store. She can only wonder what the hell is wrong with him. “The entrance we desire is here without a doubt! In order to gain access to the base we must find it, hence the reason for demolishing the place.” If they don’t find anything in this place they are so screwed. . .

Lance continues destroying things left and right. Now those two girls are looking at him like he’s completely insane. He’s blown a hole in the roof, why the hell not. Lance is behind the counter throwing things about and the shop owner is cowering in the corner. Steel slaps herself in the face, slowly dragging her hand down to express her annoyance at this whole situation.

In doing so she notes an oak cabinet. It’s the only thing that Lance hasn’t destroyed so far. She decides to lift up the storage unit with one hand to find a hole in the bottom of it and a narrow stairway leading deep into the ground.

At least they can’t be sued for damages now.

Hopefully.

“Lance, I found a staircase.” The Elite Four leader rushes to her side. There’s an amused grin plastered on his face. He rushes back to the shop owner and handcuffs the man to the counter on suspicion of helping Team Rocket. Lance returns to Steel’s side, motioning the two girls over. “By the way Lance, we have a hostage situation as well.”

“Hostage situation?” He repeats. He looks to the two girls curiously, already piecing it together that they informed Steel of said situation.

“Yeah, according to these two, Rocket took two of their friends captive.”

“I see, this is a terrible situation.” Lance nods to himself as he formulates a plan. “Alright. You, Miss. . .” He points a finger at the girl with black hair, unsure what to call her. Now that Steel even thinks about it she never asked what the girl’s name was. . .

“Gwendolyn Hitachi. Just call me Gwen although.” Ah. Quick to the point. She motions to the blonde. “This is Kairi Miller. Due to an unfortunate encounter with Team Rocket she has lost use of her vocal cords. She’s still as much of a valuable trainer as she was before the incident. Give her a job and she’ll complete it.” Both Steel and Lance grimace. Steel noticed the scars on her neck before but never asked or pointed them out. She’s pretty lucky to even be alive after something like that.

“I see. Thank you. Now, Miss. Hitachi, as I recall from your battle on the lake, you have a Porygon. Correct?” Gwen nods.

“Yes sir,”

“Give it an Up Grade and trade it to Steel. She’ll trade it back to you with the Dubious Disc she received as a gift from the Silph. Co president. This will allow your pokemon to evolve to a Porygon-Z. Once you enter the base, I want you to find the computer room. Delete and crash all the data in the servers, understood?”

“Yes, but. . .” Lance raises a brow.

“But?”

“Porygon Z is not a perfected evolution state. Nonetheless, to complete the job you asked of me Porygon2 is more than enough to get the job done. I don’t want to push Digit into an unsavory situation if it’s not needed.” Lance stares at her for a moment before nodding.

“If that’s what you think is best for your friend so be it.” He looks between Steel and Kairi. “You two, I want you to locate the two captives. As soon as you find them, evacuate the premises and take them to a doctor for a medical examination. Team Rocket is not kind to it’s captives. I will find the leader of this base and take him down.” Steel and Gwen begin the trading process; it’s quick and instantaneous. The end result leads to the pokemon looking more bird like with a slick and smooth feel to its body. The pokemon seems to be pleased with the change. Lance smiles to himself before looking serious once more.

“Hopefully, this will be a major blow to them and drain them of power and resources. Everyone understand your orders?” There are nods and murmurs of yes. Lance grins confidently. “Good, I’ll go in first, you young ladies will follow and then Steel.” there are more sounds of agreement and thus they begin their descent. Steel takes one last look around the shop and sighs.

She’ll be the first to admit Lance is nothing like what he seems like on the television or in battle. When he’s outside of the public eye he acts like a huge child and is so carefree but when the situation becomes drastic, just like right now, he’ll buckle down and take the Taruos by the horns. Maybe that’s why he’s the leader of the Elite Four, not for his power and brains but for his ability to really pull through when he’s needed the most.


	18. Part One: Chapter Eighteen

Getting through the first level of the base was not as simple as they would have wanted. There were a series of Persian statues that would trigger an alarm if you passed them, unfortunately there was no way around them so Team Rocket knew they were here. What was fortunate although, was that these Team Rocket members were easy to beat up.

There was a computer found along the series of hallways. Gwen got to work after beating up a Rocket Scientist, unleashing Digit into the nearby computer. The pokemon deactivated all remaining traps and alarms before getting to work on destroying the server. Gwen assured the trio she would be fine and they continued on their way as planned.

Once the trio makes it to the second floor they split up at the first fork in the road. Steel continues deeper into the base, now that Kairi isn’t around there’s nothing stopping her from entering Soul mode.

Rockets shout in shock but she silences them with swift precise attacks and with bursts of ice attacks. There’s only one left in this hallway cowering pitifully. Steel cracks her fists as she towers over her enemy.

"Simon Hoffmann." She spits out that last name with disgust. It’s not aimed at Simon, just the old family he threw away in favor of the Locke family. "Where is he?" The grunt manages a chuckle.

“You mean you’re here for that traitor?” they follow up with an indignant snort. “He’s probably dead.” Steel’s eyes narrow. She grabs the grunt by the collar of his uniform and slams that twiggy body against the steel walls. One hand releases its tight grasp to form an icicle.

“I’m not playing games, Rocket,” To emphasize her point, she moves her frozen weapon closer to the grunt’s face. “Where is he?” That got them to squeal. Getting the information Steel needed she rids herself of the icicle and throws the grunt aside. Steel stomps down two flight of stairs into a dimly lit series of halls. A blood trail on the floor exits from a room with an open door down the hallway. Steel cautiously approaches it, believing it to be some prisoner room of sorts. . . it is, just not in the way she expected it would.

It’s a lavishly decorated bed room but it’s fancy appearance was not hiding what happened here. The smell remained as well. Steel clenches her fists furiously. Goddamn it. Team Rocket was nothing more than a bunch of sick bastards. She’s about to leave when she hears a groan. Could that be the captive? Did those Rocket bastards seriously just throw that poor person to the floor when they were done?

Steel quickly notices a lump under a soiled bed sheet as soon as she enters the room. She pulls it aside to find. . . Sean.

“Well, well, well,” he croaks out. “If it isn’t Steal Shinjiro. Never thought I’d see your ugly mug again.” She rolls her eyes and throws the sheet to the floor. Ugh. Well, he’s clearly not the victim.

“You said that the last time we met.”

“Did I now? I can't recall. Our meetings never did leave a big impact on me.”

“Which is probably why you’re on the floor, paralyzed, after getting your ass handed to you.” He scowls.

“Kairi Miller is just a cheap whore.” What. “She thinks she can come in here and take what is mine. Luring him away with false promises. . . No one will love Nick Sakati like I do. . .”

“Dude. Your idea of love is pretty twisted.” She’s younger than Sean and everything with Galvin is pretty awkward with the transition to a romantic relationship, but even she can see what they have is way more functional than whatever is going on here. If she's going to take the implication at face value -- which honestly, she rather not -- but there's too many signs indicating to the horrific abuse he's put that poor victim through. Steel decides to step on his stomach before rubbing the sole of her boot into his face. “Now cut this shit about your lost love and tell me where Simon is.” Sean just laughs.

“I donno. I brought him to base and gave him to mom.” Not a satisfying answer but it was close enough to something so she gives him a kick before exiting the room. Her only choice now is to go deeper into this hellhole.

* * *

Digit was still hard at work after all this time. There was so much information on these servers, even records of crimes dating back to at least twenty years ago. Either way, Gwen wanted a copy of all this junk. There was probably something about Atlas amongst all this data.

“Mrs. Hitachi, was it?” Gwen jumps away from the computer console in surprise. She was so absorbed with the computer she failed to keep a look out. Walking up to her with a smug look on her face was a Rocket Executive with green hair. “I do hope you don’t mind our impoliteness for ignoring you for so long. A lady of your stature. . . needs the most attention after all.”

“I’d be better if you ignored me. Thanks.” Gwen quickly answers, concentrating on the computer screen. She’s hastily typing messages to Digit, urging it to work faster.

“Aw, come now. I can't be rude to a guest. Especially one as lovely as yourself.”

“I’d appreciate it if you could.” The girl sighs, treading her hands through her hair. The executive glares.

“I see. If you plan to act that way,” Proton tosses a pokeball, letting a Weezing free. The floating poison gas pokemon unleashes toxins into the air with a heavy gasp of its name. “I suppose I shouldn’t take prisoners.” Gwen sighs, slamming her hands on the keyboard. She makes one more message to Digit and grabs Dianna’s pokeball.

“Don’t cry when I annihilate you. . .”

“Oh, you got some bite. I like that.” On command Weezing opens its mouth and spits up a pile of purple bile. It hits the floor, steaming and hissing, burning a hole through the metal. How hazardous. Regardless, Dianna dances around the flying sludge attacks with grace before striking with a psychic attack. Not only was it a critical hit but it was doubled with a type advantage.

Weezing wasn’t down although, barely able to fight but not yet defeated. It opens its mouth once more and unleashes a thick wave of purple poisonous smog. At that moment the power went out. A perfect opportunity for her to strike back.

“Oh come now, just submit to Team Rocket and drop dead you brat!” By the sound of it, he was using some breathing device to avoid inhaling poisons from the smog. It meant nothing to her. Especially when steel types were completely unaffected by poisons.

From the darkness and smog a light suddenly shines through, seven red dots in a hexagon formation. Proton squints his eyes.

“What the he-” a fist suddenly strikes him in the face, knocking a few teeth free. The man hits the floor with a rather harsh thud, knocking himself out. Gwen scoffs, looking to the three rubies attached to her long black gloves.

In the darkness Gwen had activated what she had kept a secret; her Soul power created with her partner pokemon Registeel and a broach that bares her family crest. With this Soul fusion Gwen was dressed in a tight fitting, but flexible, dress made from steel. Flexible black tights made from some unknown metal and steel boots on her feet. Her hair changed from two colors to a simple silver color, curls rested on her shoulder. Covering her head was a steel helmet with a black visor decorated with seven red lights in the shape of a hexagon. There are various other red lights glowing on her outfit among the darkness.

Digit exits the computer at long last. Gwen smiles, petting her pokemon on it’s head.

“Good job Digit, I believe we should head down and join the others as well.” The pokemon makes a sound of agreement.


	19. Part One: Chapter Nineteen

Seeing Simon like this did nothing but anger her. They locked him in some tiny closet that was covered in his blood after brutally beating him and delivering lashes to his backside. He was shaking on the floor in a pathetic manor, tears in his wide dilated eyes and taking in crazy erratic breaths.

“Simon,” she calls. He didn’t acknowledge her, too distressed to hear. Steel closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Once or twice before did she have to calm down Simon from one of his attacks in the past. It’s been a while since she had to help but thankfully, she did succeed as she spoke softly to him, lulling him back to reality. The only unfortunate part was how short lived that success was. Simon went tense the moment he saw a figure loom over Steel’s shoulder.

"Simon? What’s wrong?"

"M-m-mom. . ." Steel paled. Ariana Hoffman was the feared strict and cruel mother to Simon and Sean, and wife of Giovanni Hoffman.

The cracking of a whip indicated she was standing right behind her. Steel slowly turns around, sweating profusely.

. . .

Yeah. She was there.

Ariana cracks her whip against the floor once more. Her eyes stare down at Steel and Simon with unadulterated hate.

"Steel Shinjiro,"

"Selma." Steel grunts. Why can’t these assholes get that right?

"Unimportant. Once again you are sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong and once more you are trying to whisk away our little Simon."

"Because you guys are assholes to him!" Steel snarls. "Someone had to protect him. . ."

"Protect?" Ariana scoffs. "We have done nothing but educate him, even now we are simply reeducating him. In the slightest chance that something befalls our precious Sean we need to prepare a backup heir and Simon, unfortunately, is our only choice. . . You, Shinjiro,”

“Selma.” Why can’t anyone in this shitty organization get that through their thick skulls?

“Have poisoned him with hope. There’s no place for that in Team Rocket. We destroy that and conquer. He must remember the taste of despair if he is to succeed!”

“Jesus Christ. You’re crazy.”

“A simple girl like you has no understanding of our goal. Then again, you were a Rune. . .such a pitiful existence and goal your parents had. They were much more beautiful when they rose from the ashes two years ago. Sweet tyranny and mayhem as they went. . .”

“Shut up. That wasn’t Rune.” Steel snarls. Even now, she refuses to let people talk ill of Rune. Hilda was no leader of Rune, just some immature copycat. “That doesn’t matter though. . . I’m my own person, following my own ideals. You’re insane and so is this entire organization!” Steel waves her arm at the redhead adult causing ice shoots from her hand and propelling Ariana back into the wall with a loud bang. Steel makes quick motions with her hands. Ice spreads around the adults wrists and ankles, creating cuffs and immobilizing her.

Ariana struggles but it’s no use. Steel turns her attention back to Simon, helping him to his feet so they can finally make their escape.

* * *

Finding the passwords to get into that locked room had to be the most annoying thing Lance had to deal with in a while. He had to beat, shake and threaten way too many grunts to get answers, and once he finally got into the office he was greeted with the site of some fake.

Lance wanted to explode in anger.

Well, regardless of some fake Giovanni leading this mess, he was going to shut Team Rocket down. The fake suddenly pulled at the skin of their neck and ripped their face off. Lance flinches and covers his eyes with his arm.

“Ugh. Arceus. Give a man a warning before you rip your skin off.” Dragonite gives him an apathetic look. Regardless, Lance looks to the true face of this man. He’s a pale and thin man with purple hair, his eyes are small and beady, and a mole under his left eye. “So. Who are you?” The man scoffs.

“I am the Team Rocket Executive Petrel.” The man grins slyly. “You’re here must be trying to sneak into the radio-transmitter room.” Petrel shakes his head with an amused grin. “Well, that’s not going to happen. That room is protected with a special password. The password is ‘Hail Giovanni’.” He doesn't even skip a beat with a smug smile, asking if he was surprised to hear it from him. Somewhat. That’s not exactly something you hand out. “Knowing the password won’t help you through. The door won’t open unless I say the password. It only reacts to my voice.” Ah. Well, that explains that. . .

“Well, I suppose I’ll blow down that door.”

“Not going to happen.” Petrel lets out his first pokemon, a simple Zubat. Lance raises his brow. He looks to Dragonite, who’s clearly disappointed this is his challenge, and gives him the signal to attack. The dragon pokemon quickly takes down all its opponents. There seems to be an awkward silence as Petrel looks over his defeated pokemon laying on the floor, twitching. The Executive sweats a little before clenching teeth and crosses his arms like an immature child. “It’s not like it matters if you beat me. The lock is only activated by my voice.”

At that second the power cut.

“Well. Would you look at that.” Lance decides to turn heel and leave with Dragonite following behind him. Easy to blow up a door and not worry about triggering any alarms or defense units now. Gwen is a good girl.

* * *

She prepares to punch as she turns the doorknob. Lord knows what’s behind these doors. But, to her surprise there’s just a large white room filled with bookcases against the wall, books lay all over the floor. In the center of the room is a man shackled to a wooden table covered in pencils, papers and uneaten meals. He pulled at his hair with a hysterical look. Gwen stares a little longer at the dirty man. There’s some resemblance to Nick. He has the boy’s brown hair, although messy and dirty, and his blue eyes but they are empty and void of life.

“Please. Give me more time. Even with this data from Elm I can’t get the conclusive data you need.” Gwen approaches the table causing the man to work at an even more frantic pace. She flips through the papers the adult isn’t looking at, more than likely these are Elm’s stolen research papers. As she looks over the text. she finds she can’t even read it. . . but it seemed familiar no less. That could be questioned later although.

“How long have you been here?” She asks the man. He shakily looks up to her. There were bags under his blue eyes and his glasses were falling off his face. The man looked like he was going to collapse any second but he willed himself awake just to work.

“. . .S-several years. . .” He says slowly. He licks his lips before looking up to her. “Y-you’re not an. . . experiment are you?”

“Experiment?” Gwen crosses her arms. That's right, back on the Whirl Islands Sean had mentioned some twisted form of Soul Fusion; a forced one. Which was probably Atlas’s fate. Gwen clenched her jaw, scoffing. “No. Me and my partner are in agreement.”

“I. . .I see.” he gulps. “Are you a. . . Rocket employee?”

“Hardly.” Gwen scowls. The man flinches. “I’m here with Lance of the Kanto Elite Four to recover some kidnapped. . . friends. Although, to be honest, I am more concerned with my family member Atlas. Rockets traveled to Hoenn to take him and set the Hitachi family estate aflame in an attempt to off my parents.”

“Atlas. . .” the man shifted through paper for a moment. “Y-yes, the Deoxys. . . he was tr-trasnfered out about two week ago.” Gwen grimaces. Two weeks too late. Where the hell did they take Atlas to then? Shit. She’ll have to search large and far now, maybe even head over to Kanto.

“Alright, one more thing before we go.”

“G. . .go?”

“Yes. Go. I’ll ensure you will leave this place alive, you are a prisoner here, aren’t you?”

“I. . .No.” The man sighs, remotely pained. “I joined as a scientist. . . but only to protect my wife and son. I don’t believe in the ideals of Team Rocket.” Well. That explained the shackle. Somewhat.

“Well sir, does the name Nick Sakati ring any bells?”

“Sakati. . .? That would be my wife’s maiden name. . . Nickolas was the name of our son.”

“I see. Well, your son was one of the captives my group has come to recover. Ergo, your contract with Team Rocket is null and void, and so we should leave Mr. . .”

“Jarvis. . . Jarvis Triggs.” Gwen gives the man a nod once she snaps the chain shackling the adult to the table with raw power. She ushers the man out the door before focusing the raw energy within her body to the tips of her fingers. She points to a bookcase and fires. The charge beam lights the bookcase on fire, ruining years of research in a matter of minutes.

* * *

With his signal six Electrodes roll out the room that was previously producing that disgusting electric signal using the entrance Lance made. It was once a reinforced steel door but with Dragonight’s hyper beam it was just a hole in the wall now. The Elite Four Leader made way to the foyer before the stairs to the first floor. As soon as he lights a makeshift torch, Steel arrives with Simon on her backside, unconscious. Lance blinks at the sight, completely ignoring her Soul form. He was pretty used to it now.

“Where’s his shirt?” Steel gives Lance a look before sighing heavily.

“Probably on the floor ripped to shreds somewhere.” Lance nods, handing the torch to Steel. She looks at him quizzically as she supports Simon with one hand to accept the torch. That does not last long, she starts to blush violently when he removes his cape and thin blazer leaving only a black muscle shirt to cover his torso. He hands Steel the blazer and tucks his cape into his bag to reclaim his torch from the dumbfounded girl.

“Alright, keep him covered until we get him to a hospital. Don’t worry about getting it messy.” Steel nods understandingly and dresses her unconscious friend. Footsteps are heard and Steel prepares an attack only. Thankfully, it’s only Gwen and Jarvis. The adult pushes his glasses up to get a better look at Steel in the flickering light.

“A-amazing. . . another Soul user in one day? I could only hope to see at least one in my life time. . .!”

“Who’s the guy?” A moment later it sinks in what the strange new adult said. “Wait. . . another Soul user?” Steel looks up and down at Gwen. The Hoenn native doesn’t even blink at it.

“I’ve been an active user for several years. But that is unimportant at the moment, this man here is Jarvis Triggs, he is the father of Nick Sakati, one of the captives we came to recover. Apparently the well being of his family was threatened and he joined as a researcher in order to keep them safe.”

"I’m surprised that there are so many of these Soul users." Lance muses.

"T-there used to be a time where Soul was quite common. . . but that power disappeared from our world one day." Jarvis shakily explains

"Yeah," Steel nods. "Me and my friends were some of the first ones in a long time. There’s a lot we don’t know but we do know this was a normal thing at some point in time but with the help of the magical wish pokemon, Jirachi, this skill was lost to time."

"Jirachi. . .?" Jarvis mutters thoughtfully. "I see. I should conduct research on that. . ." The adult suddenly shakes his head, furious. "N-no! I-I-I don’t have to do that anymore! I-I’m going home and I’ll see my wife and son again!"

Footsteps came once more and both Steel and Gwen prepared an attack but dissipated when Kairi walked into the light with Nick on her back and even Linda was with her. Kairi was donned in her own Soul uniform much to the surprise of others. The upper half of her pale blue uniform was much like a military uniform but also looked like a furisode with it’s long swinging sleeves adored with bubble prints. Around her waist was a purple obimakura that shaped the drum bow for the white obi and a red obijime tired around her waist. Her pale blue skirt was cut a little before her knees.

Resting upon her head was a pale blue military hat with a black bill. While on her legs were matching tights with three white diamonds running up the length of the tights and wooden getas on her feet. Hanging from her yugake -- a type of archery glove -- covered hands was a filled white yazutsu and yumibukuro -- Japanese quiver and bow respectively -- that bore similarity to the iconic headpiece Suicune was said to have. 

“Wow. That’s three.” Lance smiles. “What a turn of events. Nonetheless, this base is no longer any use to the Rockets and we have recovered the captives.”

“What do you mean ‘no longer useful’? They can always get a new power source.” Steel huffs.

“Not if I blow this place up.” There was a smile on Lance’s face as he casually lifted up a bomb detonator. Steel sighs, shaking her head. Of course Lance would use bombs. “Don’t worry, I’m not blowing anyone up. If they don’t make it outside in time, that’s their own problem. I gave them a warning.”

Steel doubts that but says nothing more as Lance informs them they have only ten minutes to escape. Everyone pretty much books it as fast as they can, dropping Soul transformations as they run up the stairs. They could hear vague shouts of terror from down below when they emerged in the souvenir store. Outside the store was a police line, waiting for Rockets to come stumbling out. Lance escorts the group behind the lines to get medical attention. Jarvis, Nick and Simon were loaded into ambulances and were accompanied with Steel and Kairi. As for the Pokemon Lance found, they were taken to the PokeCenter.

Mere minutes after the vehicles left the explosion occurred. The ground rattled and the doors of the shop opened, flooding smoke and distressed Rockets right into the police line to be arrested. Gwen and Lance remained behind to watch the roundup. Unfortunately, none of the executives or Sean resurfaced meaning they either died or they escaped prior to the explosion.

What a bunch of trouble makers. . .


	20. Part One: Chapter Twenty

Linda stares out at the water of Route 42. She’s staring at her reflection for the first time in her life. There was no mirror or anything reflective in her old room in the Rocket base. She touches her face after a moment of hesitation, as if checking this really was her. She can feel the touch of cold fingers against her skin. She shivers.

Lopunny hops to her side and hugs her, nuzzling constantly against her body. Linda looks back to the water. She can see Lopunny’s reflection in the water. She's very tall, fluffy and has long ears. She wonders what colors are on Lopunny or on her for that matter. For so long, the world was just dark, and so much has happened since she could see. There wasn’t much time to think about it then but she’s had hours since then.

Her brows furrow angrily. Black, Sean, whatever that jerk called himself pissed her off to no end. He was a liar and a creep and did nothing but use her to his advantage.

Linda closes her fist tightly around the keychain he gave her. It reminded her of a simple time. She gives the moon an angry glare as she remembers. A time of lies. A time when she was blind to truth and a terrible reality. A time when she. . .

What does it matter? It is a time that’s lost.

With an angry cry she throws the keychain. It flies through the air and hits the water with a plunk, sinking into the water below. She pants heavily, trying to rid herself of all her anger and anguish by breathing it out, when a voice speaks to her. She looks around but there’s no one else around but Lopunny, but she’s digging in her bag. She’s about to turn away when Lopanny presents her with a small royal coronet made with silver and pearls and padded deep blue velvet.

Linda stares at the crown once she awkwardly accepts it. She spends moments running her fingers over the item, trying to recognize it by feel. Moments pass before she sighs with a small smile. Yeah. . . How did she forget this. . .? Simon got it for her two years ago while they were on the cruise ship they first met each other.

Now that she could finally see it she could hardly believe he got her something so expensive and beautiful when they just met. . . Although in reality, it wasn't a real crown and it was rather tiny. It was more of a decorative item but, if she knew, it wouldn't change much to her.

> _Linda darling._

That voice speaks again and yet there’s still no one around. Linda sighs, looking back to the crown in her hands. Light reflects against silver and she sees Lugia’s image in the crown. She blinks.

“Lugia?”

> _Ah, I can finally hear your voice. . . it’s been so long. . ._

“Why are you still here? I mean, not to be rude and all. . . but why?”

> _We are bound together by the strings of fate. . . it was simply unfortunate we were reunited in such terrible circumstances. . . I have shifted locations for something more favorable and dear to you. . . a gift from a dear friend who genuinely cares for you. . . I will always be at your side. . ._

Linda was not sure how to respond and could only give a simple thank you because Lugia was right. Simon was the only friend she had that truly cared for her. He crossed distances and worked hard to find her and tried to keep her safe. Simon is very kind despite his own demons. Linda stows away the crown once more and returns to looking at the water's surface before her.

“Hey,” Steel called as she trotted over. “Are you okay? It’s getting late out.”

“Is it?” Linda blinks. “I didn’t realize.” The concept of day and night, or rather time in general, was strange to her. She usually, slept and ate when told to. . .

“. . .Right.” Steel coughs awkwardly. “Uh, about Simon, since you two are friends and all, I thought I should tell you he’s doing good now. He’ll just need to rest for a while.”

“I see,” Lina nods. “And. . . the other boy, Nick, was it?” Steel draws her mouth into a tight line.

“That’s. . . a bit more complicated. Plus, it’s not really my place to say it. . . it’s just. . . going to take him a long time before he can reach a state of ‘normal’ again.”

“. . .I see.”

“A-anyway, what about you? You came all this way to Johto to get help to see again. . . now that you can, what do you plan to do? You do have the power of Soul and the Soul Chamber would very much appreciate all the help we can get to aid people in danger but if you want to go home I’d understand.”

“I. . .I need time to think about that to be honest.” Linda sighs. “It seems like a good idea, but I. . . I really want to see my parents for the first time. . . and. . .”

“Don’t worry,” Steel smiles. “I understand. Ships to Sinnoh don’t come around here often but I’ll get you a nice room on the first one available.”

“Thank you.” Linda nods. Steel wraps an arm around Linda’s shoulder and walks her back to the PokeCenter. It takes about a month for a ship heading for Sinnoh pulls in the Olivine Harbor and, as promised, Steel got her an expensive room with a view she could appreciate. Neither Simon or Nick are available to send her off, even though the latter had no idea who she was, so she says her goodbyes in the hospital and wishes Simon well.

About a week later Simon and Nick are released from the hospital along with Jarvis. Simon has slight pain in his back but only scars remain from the lashings from his blood mother. Nick. . . is another story. Many scars remain, physically and emotionally, and he’s reduced to using a crutch due to his broken left leg. The only problem that remains is paying bills. Jarvis is poor as they come, being trapped in a Team Rocket facility for years and being declared legally dead for vanishing so long ago -- something he'll have to sort that out later -- Simon decided to cover the bill himself. He has a decent amount of money from Steel anyway and he owes them both that much for his failures.

“Oh, your bills are covered.” The woman at the front desk smiles. Simon blinks slowly.

“Huh?”

“Yes, a representative from the Kanto Soul Chamber paid your bills. What a nice young lady. . .”

“The. . . Soul Chamber? What is that?”

“I’m not surprised you don’t know what that is.” The woman answers thoughtfully. “The Soul Chamber is an archeologist group of sorts-slash-crime investigator group. The group is supported and funded by the Kanto Elite Four.”

Simon thanks the woman and trio make their way back home. Although it takes a couple of days with inadequate flying Pokémon, Mrs. Locke greets the three of them. Simon is specifically given a tight hug, crying the whole time. He winces a little but manages to deal with it. A simple touch on Nick’s shoulder makes him flinch so she smiles, welcoming him home as well. As the two young men climb the stairs to their respective rooms the two adults talk for the first time in years. Jarvis awkwardly looks around, Felicia’s house has not changed much over the years. It’s the same humble house. . .. He coughs a moment later.

“It’s nice to see you again Felecia.” Felecia smiles, giggling.

“It’s nice to see you again Jarvis, please, stay as long as you need.” Jarvis’s eyes grow wide.

“Are you. . . sure about that? I don’t want to impose on you.”

“Nonsense, I’ve been informed of the situation by an old family friend. I would feel terrible if I didn’t do anything to help you! Besides, there are plenty of rooms upstairs. Pick one out and settle down, we can get you new clothes and everything tomorrow. . .” There’s a pause and Felecia’s face falls. “Unless you wish to visit Selene tomorrow?” Jarvis looks around again, as if he’s searching for an escape but he stops once his eyes come to rest on a framed photo. A simple picture of simple days, a day where all three of them, Felecia, Jarvis and Selene, graduated from school in those navy school uniforms they wore one last time. They’re all smiling, throwing peace signs and holding onto their diplomas with pride.

“She’s really gone huh. . .?” To hear it from Simon and then his own son was painful. Now someone he’s known all his life is telling him as well. Selene Triggs really is gone. He sighs shakily before nodding. “Yeah. I’d like to see her.”

The following morning, after eating breakfast, the residence of the Locke house left for the graveyard. The Triggs family haka was quickly located -- Selene's engraved name is without paint to symbolize she's passed on and Felicia adds a layer of red to Javris's name to symbolize his return. Slowly, with some reservations, the man lays down flowers for his wife and Felicia lights incense. The first to break the silence is Jarvis with simple sniffles which lead to breaking the damn. He falls to his knees weeping loudly and choking on apologies.

Nick watched the adult, unsure of what to do. For so long, he thought this man hated him and his mother, abandoning them to fend for themselves. He never came to her funeral and never came back for him until now. For years this man. . . no, his father was a prisoner to Team Rocket and worked to keep him alive. . . but Team Rocket betrayed him in the end. . . Jarvis Triggs loved his wife and son. Even if Nick himself was a mess now and his wife was dead.

In the end Nick is unable to do anything but stand there.

* * *

“Alright, with the initiation completed, you are the first member of Johto Soul Chamber branch.” Kairi nods. The young man before with spiky brown hair and green eyes her smiles. He’s dressed in a black leather flight jacket trimmed with white fur around the collar, a pair of brown cargos and black sneakers. Around his neck was a tear shaped diamond on a silver chain that seems to glimmer in a rather unique way. “We thank you for your future service.”

The young man leads her cross the polished floor to a spiral staircase located to the north western corner of the floating building. Looking around Kairi quietly notes that there were a total of five spiral staircases (and a simple staircase northbound) but two of them were roped off.

“My name is Galvin by the way,” the boy introduces. “Right now there are only two others living here, my, uh, girlfriend Steel Selma, who’ve you met, and our childhood friend Brass Elliot. You should be able to meet him at dinner tonight.” He’s met with nothing but silence but he’s sure she’s nodding understandingly.

“Alright, on the second floor is our rec room and library, both are empty at the moment so if you want to make a request for something just talk to Brass. He’s pretty much in charge of organization this place while Steel and I are out. Also the dining room and kitchen is on the second floor as well if you’re hungry.”

“Third floor is where all the rooms are,” he explains, turning the doorknob. It’s locked. To him at least. He sighs, moving aside and motioning for Kairi to open it. She seems a bit baffled by this but complies with his request and from the moment she touches the doorknob it turns in an instant. They travel along the skypath and emerge in what looks like a lounge area with several doors -- from what she could tell three of them lead to bedrooms and one marked the exit from of this specific housing section. “Sorry about that, there’s a lot about this place we don’t quite know about just yet. There’s an automated lock for each squad’s quarters so no one wanders into the wrong place, as long as they take the skypath. If they used the other door you would have to buzz them in.” Galvin leads the way to the door that had a box waiting for Kairi. Once there he collects the box for the young woman as she cracks the door open.

“Brass has the master key so he left you a care package. You can open it up in the privacy of your room. Right now it’s a basic set up and the same goes for that bathroom, so remember to talk to Brass if you want anything else or want to order furniture. Brass is usually in the Rec room or dining hall during the day, at night you can find him on the pool deck on the fourth floor. He likes to look at the stars. And if you need me I’ll usually be in the library.”

Galvin bids her a farewell before handing the box to her. Kairi bows her head in thanks before she fully pushes the door open and takes in the sight of her room. As stated it’s pretty simple and designed to save space. A small white wood staircase leads to a platform where a contemporary writing desk and padded chair waits, above it is a bookshelf and next to the desk is a small closet. In the corner is a small sofa covered in throw pillows that can roll out into a bed and above it is another bookshelf. Thankfully there was railing to stop Kairi from falling. There was a lamp by the sofa bed and on the desktop top surface.

Back on the ‘first floor’ is a pull out bed and many drawers to store things, even more storage spaces were under the stairs. Near the corner was another lamp which could be moved for her needs. There was a large fluffy carpet on the floor where a kotatsu sat with a bowl of fresh oranges and a welcoming note waited for her. The most predominant detail of the room was the giant fish tank built into the wall that served as a window.

The twilight sunlight streamed into the room at this hour. Kairi pulls her bed out after carefully placing her bag on the carpet next to the kotatsu and opens the care package. Inside were various types of notebooks and writing utensils for her to use. Besides the notebooks, there were many things, snacks and hygiene items included, for Kairi to make use of. Once she looks though everything she decides this is a good enough time to unpack her bag and put everything away. It takes her some time but as she’s preparing to take a seat to rest she’s informed it’s dinner time.

Down in the dining hall there are many tables but only four occupants in the dining hall so Galvin calls her over to eat with him, Steel and Brass. Even if she had a voice she wouldn’t have said much as Steel informed the two boys of things she’s seen and done. It seems Gwen had made quite a huge donation to the Soul Chamber. What was interesting was that she was a recently indicted member as well, but was not staying. . .

Why was that? Well, Brass wanted to know that as well.

“Ah, well, Team Rocket is still a problem so she’s looking for them and trying to recover a kidnapped family member.”

“I see,” Galvin nods “that sounds like a pretty big job for her to do alone.”

“I mentioned that but she didn’t care.” Steel shrugs. “She just wants to find her family member.” Steel looks over to Brass and squints her eyes. With no warning she grabs him by his face. She pushes her thumbs into his mouth and opens his mouth wide. “You’re missing a tooth.” She sighs, retracting her hands with a shake of her head. Oh yes, Brass has grown older but it doesn’t seem like he’s grown out of his phases of doing dumb things to himself. Now that she thinks about it, there’s even a scar on his cheek. “Oh geez, what have you done to yourself?”

“Nothing,” he grunts, rubbing his tongue on his napkin. Gross. “Just went training on Mt. Silver with Moltres.” There was a pause. “I crashed into a wall.”

“Incredible.” Galvin sighs.

“My, my, what will your dad say when you visit home.” Steel snickers.

“Oh Arceus. I don’t even want to think about that.” Steel and Galvin laugh at Brass’s despair. Even Kairi manages to chuckle, at least to the best of her abilities.

* * *

“Now Sally, don’t look that sad dear.” Norman smiles. The purple haired girl frowns even more at her father’s words. He sighs, scratching his head, and looking to his wife for guidance. She shrugs. “Look at it as an adventure. You’ll get to visit Maribelle’s home region.” The Skitty lounging on the couch perks up at her name. The mother of the family smiles, petting the pokemon under her chin before she slides out the apartment to load another box into the moving truck.

“Maribelle is from Hoenn?” the little girl gasps in wonder.

“That’s right. Hoenn is home to many pokemon you can’t find here and it’s a very big place with so many sights.” Sally looked interested for a moment but pouted once more. The little girl instead turns her attention to Katherine, a Delicatty and Maribelle’s mother, who joined her daughter on the couch. Norman sighs and hangs his head.

“What about friends? I won’t have any. . .”

“Don’t worry about that.” Norman smiles, stepping aside for his pokemon to gather the last of the boxes and furniture, that being the couch. The cat-like pokemon jumps down and walks to Sally’s side, rubbing against her leg affectionately. Norman walks to the crib, handing Sally her younger brother. “I have a very good friend in Littleroot Town and he’s got a son. I’m sure he’d love to play with someone his age.” Norman explains, collapsing and packing away the baby’s playpen. The mother reenters the house and collects her son from her daughter. She rushes out of the house before mentioning the truck will be leaving in a couple of minutes.

“Are you sure?” Sally asks once more.

“I’m positive.” The little girl sighs and takes her father’s hand.

“Okay, let’s go.” Norma smiles in response, ruffling her hair with his free hand.

* * *

Months have passed since everything has transpired. Nothing is quite normal as it once was but. . . it’s slowly getting there one supposes. Simon sits on the steps to his home, tossing pebbles across the dirt path. He quickly gets bored, resting his head in the palm of his hand and sighs. He notices something moving in his peripheral vision. Simon is suddenly attentive, ready to attack if necessary but, to his surprise, it’s Kairi. . .

“K-Kairi!” He jumps to his feet, nearly tripping as he runs to her side. Kairi smiles. “Where have you been? You just got up and vanished one day!” Kairi pulls a notebook and pen from her coat. Simon takes the small notebook. “You joined the Soul Chamber? W-well, okay, at least I know you’re in safe hands there. . . but why didn’t you tell anyone?” Kairi shrugs. She takes back her notebook to ask a question.

“You want me to help you find the Team Rocket Executives and Sean and Giovanni?” Kairi takes her book back, scribbling something down before giving it back to Simon.

> _Yes. Not because of a matter of revenge for all they’ve done. But because I trust you more than anyone else._

Simon lets out a sigh, closing the notebook. “If you’ll have me, I’ll follow. I left on that journey to find them in the first place. So, let me pack up and we can go.”


	21. Part Two: Chapter Twenty One

Time waits for no one is a common phrase known by many.

Kairi and Simon left their respective homes to search for what remains of Team Rocket, terrors that shook their friendship and calm life to the core. Sadly, in the passing of two years the duo have searched all of Kanto but to their disdain they’ve found nothing. As usually Team Rocket is elusive and nowhere to be found. This is a case they cannot drop so they return to Johto to begin the search once more.

Kairi is as voiceless as ever, more than likely, something that will remain with her forever. Despite this disability she’s still hardworking and determined to ensure peace for people and to bring a stop to the villains that harmed her dear friends. Simon, on the other hand, has regained his friendly composure due to the acceptance of his roots he’s tried so hard to hide from friends and family. To them, he is Simon Locke, no matter where he came from. And much like Kairi, he is determined to find what remains of Team Rocket and to shut them down once and for all.

Which leads us to where this tale begins, in the humble town of Mahogany. Since Team Rocket was forced out of town the people have become much more livelier and the water levels in Lake of Rage have lowered. It was back to old times for the citizens of this small town.

Citizens have confirmed there has been no new sighting of Rockets over the past two years. Which was good, no one returned to the site of the crime. . . but also problematic. Where the hell are they? There’s been a complete lack of clues, there’s a possibility of Mt. Silver but Kairi is not willing to go there without checking the last of the cities and towns first.

So, Mahogany Town checks out. All there’s left to do before departing is to heal their pokemon and collect supplies. The souvenir shop has been rebuilt and, compared to her first visit, stocked with many vital tools and supplies for trainers and residents of the town. Simon purchased an air mail stationary along with several hyper potions, super repels and a couple of revives. Once he finishes shopping he returns to the PokeCenter to catch Kairi sending an update report to her bosses. Whoever they were.

Once the preparations were done, the duo was on the road again. Route 44 was still heavily populated despite the winter season. Maybe they should have been expected since the gym leader of Mahogany Town did specialize in ice pokemon. Nonetheless, it wasn’t going to stop the pair.

They walked for a while until they were stopped by two Ace Trainers who introduced themselves as Cybil and Allen. Allen spins his pokeball on his index finger with a grin.

"So, why not a double battle, me and my girl," Allen stops spinning the pokeball and catches it before pointing his finger in Simon’s face. The raven haired boy visibly finches and leans away from Allen’s finger. "Against you and your girl."

"Alright, Alright, just watch that finger." With a grin Allen backflips to his girlfriend’s side, tossing out his own pokeball to join Cybil’s. A Mareep and Charmeleon enter the battlefield letting out furious snarls to appear intimidating. Simon let's Furret uncurl around his neck and joins Mittens’s side. Kairi reacts quickly as usual with the wave of her arm. Mittens curls into a ball, propelling herself into Charmeleon with force all while Furret digs under the battlefield. The pokemon bursts from under Mareep’s feet , propelling the sheep pokemon into the air and slams its body into Mareep with full force. The sheep impacts with the ground, knocked unconscious as well. Two pokemon down only two to go before the battle was won.

Allen and Cybil release their last two pokemon onto the field a Bellossom and Magnemite both Kairi and Simon swap their pokemon for Boomer and Typholosion. A swift assault from Boomer left Bellossom charred and defeated. Typholosion loomed over Magnemite with a grin. He raises his paw and slams a flame covered fist right onto the top of Magnemite’s head, slamming it into the ground. And like that, the battle was won.

"You two are too good." Cybil sighs. "We couldn’t even get an attack in." Her boyfriend shells out the money to them and off they go once more after bidding the ace trainers farewell. Simon hands Kairi the money and she pockets it with the rest. They soon arrived at Ice Path. It’s true to its name. Cold and ice sheets just about everything. Including the floor in most places. Unprepared for this, Kairi slips on the floor and slams her face on the ground. She hopes she didn’t chip a tooth. Simon is at her side several moments later after carefully maneuvering over so he doesn't face the same fate. Thankfully nothing is broken. He pulls her to her feet and together they manage to glide off the slick icy floor.

They stumble around for a while and surprisingly run into Photographer Cameron. Why is he even here? It’s cold and miserable as hell here. The photographer seems not to care about the weather when he asks if they want a photo taken. Well, why not? Besides the fact it’s cold there’s really no harm in it. At least there are no stupid costumes as there was in Goldenrod. That was weird to have a surplus of Team Rocket uniforms for photo taking reasons. The two trainers pose in the miserable weather and get their photo taken. Cameron folds up his tripod camera and exits the cave as casual as humanly possible.

The two continue on through the cave, passing the odd iced over rocks and the hanging Zubats. Other than the Zubats (which strangely were actually normal in cold climates as crazy as it seemed) the cave seemed to be without too many abnormalities. A faint ‘snee’ could be heard echoing through the cave but that also seemed relatively normal since Sneasels were known for nesting within this cave. Surely they’d never be hostile.

Or so they hoped. The ‘snee’s grew louder until a horde of Sneasels landed around them from the ceilings. They all had glints in their already cold eyes, they were here to draw blood. Territorial Sneasels, they’d heard of such Sneasels but there have only been few reports of such things. Of course, that could be because very few survived these onslaughts. Furret’s fur bristled as Simon and Kairi found themselves nearly back to back as they tried to move away from the Sneasels.

The Sneasels stopped moving in for a moment as they began scraping their claws together. Within moments a Weavile jumped down and landed in the front of the group. It scraped its claws together as well, snarling and appearing to be saying things in its pokemon tongue. Of course Kairi and Simon didn’t speak pokemon but judging by its tone they were able to figure out they just accidentally intruded into the Weavile’s territory. Incredible.

Furret began trying to communicate with the Weavile as if to reason with it but the Weavile shook its head and drew a line across its neck in the air making a ‘kkchk’ sound. The other Sneasels all let out battle cries, it seemed fighting was inevitable. Within seconds Typhlosion and Boomer were on the field and the battle began. The flaming duo made short work of several Sneasels while the leader Weavile seemed to avoid the fiery attacks with ease and managed to claw Typhlosion across the face with its metallic claws. This only angered Typhlosion as it released a devastating fire blast on the horde, Weavile took some of the blow but still stood. What was that thing made out of?? Boomer followed up with a finishing flame thrower and the Weavile fell to its knees, still stubbornly trying to fight. Most of the Sneasels by now had been either knocked out or were slowly retreating. The ice around them had been melted in uneven patches and generally the whole area was a small war zone.

The Weavile still kneeled there, shaking with anger. Eyes struggling to stay open, legs struggling to stand. It was over. It fell face first into the ice and became silent. The other Sneasels fully retreated, some bearing long faces. Their prided leader had fallen, defeated. Their territory, their turf, their home, was lost, in their minds at least.

Kairi and Simon first looked at the results of the battle and then looked at each other. Without words they both kind of slowly and awkwardly danced on the ice towards what they guessed and hoped was the exit to this icy hell cave with Typhlosion on their tails.

Meanwhile Boomer picked up the Weavile’s body as if it were a chew toy. He gives the pokemon a shake before the two trainers call him over, reluctantly he follows command and returns to Kairi’s side. The two trainers stare at him and after a moment his tail begins to wag. Simon sighs, scratching him under the chin before Kairi returns him to his pokeball leaving the limp Weavile body land on the ground with a light thump. Simon also returned Typhlosion thus and the duo continued their awkward dance maneuver across the ice.

The two lost track of time and were becoming increasingly annoyed with everything. There were mazes upon mazes in this place. Not to mention a stupid puzzle that involved sliding boulders around and dropping them down holes in the ground just so they could cross lower floors. How stupid. But, finally, they could see the light of the exit. . .. And a young lady in a yellow kimono. By the looks of it her getas were stuck to the icy floor. That must suck.

It’s been a long time since Kairi’s seen any young ladies dressed in kimonos. By the looks of it, this was a young lady belonging to the gold dance team, the usual bunch she ran into before the Whirl Island incident. She was new to Kairi, of course. The young lady notices her and Simon. She giggles awkwardly.

"Oh, yes, you. I’ve heard much about you Kairi." Aughghh. Vagueness again. Why are these kimono girls talking about her anyway? "You helped my dear cousins, what was it? About two years ago?" The kimono clad girl begins to blush. "It is nice to see such a kind hearted girl in person, but. . . our situation is very unfortunate. My getas are frozen to the floor." They can see that actually. "Well, it’s no laughing matter. Would you push my back?" Kairi agrees, sliding across the icy floor to the kimono clad girl and gives her the hardest shove she can muster. Thankfully the girl slides across the ice instead of her getas snapping and crashing across the floor. The girl waves goodbye and exits the cave.

Still, Kairi really has to wonder, after two years, why are those kimono girls still talking about her?


	22. Part Two: Chapter Twenty Two

When Simon and Kairi arrive in Blackthorn City there’s no sign of the yellow kimono girl. What a surprise. Nonetheless, the two take a minor rest in the pokemon center and heal their pokemon. As Kairi reads her mail she notes the radio is playing in the background (a couple of trainers were dancing and having a blast) and many trainers are waiting in the lobby each of them looking serious and determined.

Kairi had nearly forgotten this was the year of the Pokemon League and this was the final city for all trainers looking for a badge. Her attention returns to Simon when he shrieks a sound that nearly grabs every trainer’s attention. It seems Typhlosion has returned to him and he’s got an impressive scar over his right eye from the fight in Ice Path. His pokemon assures him he’s fine though as he rubs his head against Simon’s stomach. After he collects himself and eats a decent meal the duo departs for Dragon’s Den. According to an email from her boss, Kairi was informed Lance would be in the Dragon’s Den today and maybe he would have some new information.

* * *

The den is a cold and dark place littered with jagged rocks and moss. Sitting in the far back is the shrine, erected in the water. If it wasn’t for the darkness Kairi would have seen Lance’s red hair as he meditates on the deck of the isolated shrine. Kairi lets Mittens out, she and Simon jumps onto her backside and she pushes out. Mittens carefully navigates around giant rocks in the water. If any wild pokemon appeared Mittens would simply ram into them. Once they reach the whirlpool, the Miltank enters the whirlpool and swims in the opposite direction bringing the water to a calm. Mittens carries on and delivers the two trainers to stone stairs. Kairi hoists Mittens out of the water and praises her for her work.

Kairi lets Simon do. . . something as she approaches Lance. At first, he’s miffed that someone is interrupting his meditation but seeing that it’s Kairi he lets it slide.

"Kairi, it’s been a while. How are things?" Kairi flips out her notebook and scribbles her response. Simon watches the two converse for a while before he takes a chance and slides into the shrine. Maybe he could find some books to read or something while inside. Much like everywhere else the inside of the shrine was dimly lit. The walls were painted with various depictions of dragon like pokemon, many that Simon has never seen before. There were a total of three elderly men in kimonos in the shrine, with one resting at the far back, resting his knees on the pillow and dressed in a more detailed kimono and hanten, was the head of the shrine.

Maybe he should go. . .

"Stay." Oh. Okay. The head motions to a spot right in front of him. Simon sits on his knees before the adult. He’s not sure why the man would want to talk to him anyway. . . "Now, tell me your name, child."

"Oh, uh, Simon Locke." The elder nods.

"I see. He who listens. . . what an interesting name. Tell me, do you listen to your pokemon?"

"I try my best." Simon scratches his cheek. "I’m nowhere as good as my friend Kairi. . ."

"I see. Are you envious of your friend and their bond with their pokemon?"

"Huh? Not. . . really? Kairi is just good because, well, training and she’s always had pokemon at her side growing up." Furret rubs against his neck making him smile.

"I see. Are Pokemon friends or tools to be used?" Simon quickly shakes his head.

"No, of course not. . . They are. . . family to me." Smiling, he pets Furret from head to tail. The pokemon coos happily. "Furret was my first pokemon. I was very upset one day and my home life was terrible at that time when I ran into Furret, he was a simple Sentret at the time though. . . I couldn’t bring him home. If anyone knew I had adopted a pokemon terrible things would have happened to him. I loved playing with him, it was like escaping from my family and. . . he was the only Sentret in the forest. I was all he had and he was one of the few in the world that liked me. When Steel found a safer place for me to live Sentret begged to come with me." Simon laughs a little.

"So, I took him with me. My adoptive mother finally asked after a year or two, why didn’t I keep him in a pokeball. I never kept him in a pokeball because I couldn’t afford one. It was his choice to join me in the end and we’ve been together since then. I love Furret. I love and care for all my pokemon. . . they’re my family. That’s why. . . we’re going to stop people like Team Rocket. So no one else’s pokemon, friends or family get hurt or mistreated any more." The elder seems amused despite the fact he just unnecessarily barfed up his entire life story but the old man smiles and nods.

"I see, pokemon are very dear to you. . ." The man turns away to shuffle with something behind him. Simon tries to glance over the elder’s shoulder with no avail. When he turns back to Simon he places a red velvet pillow between them. Sitting on the pillow is a single pokeball. Simon blinks. What. "Please, take this pokemon as a parting gift. You are a kind boy Simon, I am sure this Dratini will be safe in your hands." Simon makes a loud sound as he chokes on nothing. Dratinis were incredibly rare and to just give him one because of some conversation was just. . . unimaginable.

"A-A re you sure. . .?"

"Quite. I don’t think I need to remind you to take care of this pokemon."

"Of course!” Simon exclaims. As he prepares to take his leave the shrine doors slide open. He glances back and thinks nothing at first but double takes seconds later. To his surprise, it’s Nick and Gwen. Nick looks as surprised as he is to see him here and awkwardly rubs his arm. Guilt immediately gnaws at him. He tries to maintain contact with Nick but he always feels guilty about it because Sean -- his biological brother -- did this to Nick and if he was . . . so much better at, well, _everything_ he could have prevented this. Prevented the hurt and damage to the two people that meant the world to him.

“Simon, uh,”

“Nick. . . uh. . . I should. Give you space.” Simon quickly stands and hastily walks off, bowing to just about everyone in the shrine. He stumbles past Nick, accidentally brushing past him, which quickly proves to be a wrong move. Nick freaks and actually shoves Simon away from him. Simon loses his footing, falls down the stairs and into the water. The poor boy floats face down on the water’s surface, simply accepting this as some form of divine punishment. Everyone just watches him bob in the water a bit awkwardly. His newly obtained Dratini bursts from its pokeball in a flourish of sparkles and attempts to tug him onto land. The small dragon pokemon does not have much luck. Lance laughs a little approaching the boy and his dragon from the stone stairs and hoists both out of the water. Simon is tucked under his arm, water pouring out of his mouth, and the Dratini is curled around his other arm.

“Oh, your friend is lucky Kairi.” Lance laughs “Not often do people obtain Dratinis, or shiny pokemon for that matter.” Which was true, both shiny pokemon and Dratinis were rare, the former much more than the lather. Kairi beamed at the sight of the Dratini. It was so pretty with it’s magenta scales. Kairi carefully pet the pokemon from head to tail while Simon took his time to pull himself together.

* * *

"Y-yeah" Nick nods. He sweats a little and scratches the back of his neck. "Gwen has been helping me out a lot and one day she suggested that I try continuing my journey. Y-You know, to participate in the Pokemon League and win. . . is my dream." Nick blushes a little and rubs his arm. It’s hard to say if the two years have been kind to Nick or not. He’s back in the open once again and battling again but it was clear that even that was hard for him. Kairi is sure he’s a little thinner than she can recall and he has bags under his blue eyes. But, he is keeping care of himself to an extent. He’s clean and his hair is in order, even if he’s pulled his long bangs back with orange hair clips, but his clothes are still baggy as ever.

"That’s good to hear." Simon smiles, a towel and Furret on his wet head. "I’m sorry I haven’t been home but I’m really proud of you, you know." He turns to Gwen. Gwen is dressed far more formal than their last meetings, making her look like a true heiress. (Not like there were doubts before.)

Dressed in a white long sleeved ruffled blouse with a pale pink bow around the collar, a deep red vest with silver buttons, a long pale pink skirt that reached past her knees, white stockings and red mary janes. Her hair was curled in a ponytail using what seemed like expensive ties. In her lap was a heavy pink winter coat, red scarf, white gloves, ushanka and muff. She really went all out, huh.

“You, uh, thanks.” Simon mutters, glancing at her. “For watching Nick I mean. . . it really means a lot that you would do that.”

“Think nothing of it.” Gwen smiles. “It was a fine opportunity to not only scan Johto once more but see the region and learn it’s history, as well get to know Nick. He’s a fine young man. . . it took him a while to warm up to me though.” Nick blushes and looks down to his lap. Furret suddenly slides off Simon’s head, taking the towel with him. The pokemon lets out a terrified squeak but Simon easily catches his friend in his arms. Simon gives the pokemon a smile and Furret cheers happily. Simon stops smiling, although, when he feels a hand lightly touching his raven hair. Nick suddenly jerks away, blushing and looking nervous as ever.

“Y-your hair.”

“Hmm?”

“I-it’s. . . long.” Simon shrugs, scratching his head.

“Yeah. I never got a chance to cut it. Kairi seems to like it, so why bother?” Kairi goes red and punches Simon in the arm. As if Furret sensed the impending danger he jumped onto Simon’s shoulder. His trainer winces in pain. He complains like a child as he rubs the site of the injury.

"My, how unbecoming of you." Gwen snorts. "It makes you look like a hobo."

"I-I do not look like a hobo!" Simon exclaims astonished at such an accusation.

"Oh my, you could have fooled me."

Geez, some friendship they have. Regardless, Nick laughs a little and that was enough to gain their attention and make them stop their fight. In the background, to a corner of the PokeCenter, the breakdancer and his friends were still at it. The lead dancer suddenly rises to his feet, before his friends can ask 'what's going on' he puts his hand in one of their faces and loudly says ‘Stop!’

He waits and listens to the radio. Hearing a familiar beat he grins, nodding his head. “This is my JAM!” He exclaims. “Ey, Nurse Joy, can you turn up the music?” The nurse smiles and nods. She turns the dial to raise the volume when the radio abruptly starts to blare static. She’s startled. That’s new. All the trainers look to her as she tries to fix the radio. No matter what channel she turns it to there’s only static. Trainers begin to mumble in confusion. What the heck is going on?

Minutes later, the static stops but an eerie silence remains as no music returns. Nurse Joy frowns. “Well, I guess the radio is br-“

> _"Welcome back to Golden Airwaves, this is your host. . .Team Rocket Executive Archer."_

The whole PokeCenter went into a state of shock. Nurse Joy began to fret and pleaded with the trainers to calm down. Some trainers received calls on their PokeGear or other communication devices from their loved ones, one of those trainers being Nick. After his last encounter with Team Rocket, it’s not surprising that he got a call from his father or Simon’s mom. Nick tried to assure his father he was alright and nowhere near Goldenrod City but by the sounds of it his dad was freaking out way too much to properly register the words, afraid his son would be taken from him once more.

> _"Don’t worry my dear subjects, we are nothing to fear, as long as you follow as we command. We aren’t out for blood, at least not yet. Oh Giovanni! Can you see us?! We are prepared for your return! Lord Giovanni your kingdom awaits you!!!"_

The radio cuts off as Archer laughs.

"This isn’t my jam." The dancer mutters. Moments later the radio starts to play a song once more but to everyone’s horror it’s just some Team Rocket anthem. Following that various Rocket propaganda begins to play, such as speeches of Team Rocket and how it’s good and beneficial. Kairi turns to Simon as the PokeCenter goes hysterical once more. She flips through her journal and points out Lance’s name as she gives him her PokeGear. It takes a moment for everything to register.

"R-Right. Lance. He needs to know about this." Simon juggled the PokeGear as he catches it. He exits the center to make the call and reenters several minutes later with Lance in tow.

"I’ve been informed of everything." Lance simply states. "I made a quick call to your higher ups, Miller. Steel is unfortunately unable to come and aid us but both Brass and Galvin will be waiting for our arrival outside of Route 34."

"Steel? You work for Steel? Since when?" Kairi gives Simon a quick note to ask later since they have work to attend to. "Alright. You’re right. We got work to do." Kairi glances to Gwen. Gwen glances at Nick. He’s looking to his lap, fists clenched tightly. Even if she too has work to attend to she feels she shouldn’t leave Nick alone since Rocket has made themselves known once more.

"Yo. . . you two are going to Goldenrod. . .?" Nick asks slowly.

". . .Yeah. Don’t worry, everything will be over soon Nick." Simon smiles softly. To everyone’s surprise Nick jumps to his feet with a serious look and fire burning in his eyes.

"Take me with you!"

"Are you sure about that?" Gwen asks slowly, looking him over. He’s shaking. He’s terrified of the thought of seeing Sean and Team Rocket again after two years but. . . he wants to fight.

"Yeah. I want. . . I want to stop Team Rocket too! They’ve done terrible things! I want to stop them and pay them back for all the shit they did to us!" Nick bites his lip. "They nearly killed Gwen’s family and stole Atlas from her, they took my father from me, they hurt you Simon, they hurt Kairi. . . they did terrible things to all of us and made us suffer. And I. . .I don’t want anyone to suffer like we did. . .." Simon and Kairi glance at each other. Lance chuckles.

"I see. His feelings are honest, that’s for sure. I say bring him."

"Sir. . .?"

"Even if we don’t bring him. I believe there’s a good chance he’ll follow us to Goldenrod and try to take down Team Rocket on his own. Better safety in numbers, right?" Kairi nods. She turns to Nick, offering her hand to him. Nick stares at it. There’s a brief moment of hesitation but he takes her hand and gives it a shake. He likes the familiar feeling of Kairi’s calloused hands. She was never dainty but always strong and determined. . . kind and powerful, just like how he wishes he could be. She smiles at him and he smiles back, squeezing her hand in determination.

"Thank you Kairi. I’ll do my best."


	23. Part Two: Chapter Twenty Three

The Kanto representatives arrived long before Kairi and her party could. Galvin was up to his usual thing of sneaking around and collecting information. The city was flooded with Team Rocket grunts. People were locked in their houses, the PokeCenter and the stores were barricaded. There weren't any signs of any high ranking Rocket members walking the streets, just simple grunts here and there. As Brass and Galvin waited for their allies to arrive the older boy mapped out an attack plan using a rough estimate of how many people would be appearing.

But there were more than he expected in the end.

“Kairi. . .It's nice to see you alive and well.” she nods. Galvin looks over to Simon and squints his eyes. “Simon? Is that you? You look like a mess.” Laughing Galvin ruffles his scraggly hair.

“I do not look like a mess.”

“When was the last time you got a haircut?” Brass calls over his friend's shoulder. Galvin gives him a look.

“. . .A while ago.” Simon mutters, crossing his arms.

“Ah, I had no idea you were so well acquainted with the Kanto Soul Chamber.” Lance smiles toying with Simon's hair. Simon uncrosses his arms with incredible speed to slap at Lance's hands.

“Stop that! My hair isn't the point now!”

“Is he always like that?” Nick asks. Everyone replies with a yes. Lance looks offended as no one skipped a beat.

“Like what? I'm perfectly normal!”

“The plan gentlemen.” Gwen coughs using the term lightly. Everyone quickly pulls themselves together. Galvin scratches out his previous plan with his foot and quickly formulates a new one in the dirt.

“Alright, Kairi,” he points to the blonde with the stick he was drawing with to get her attention. Once he has it he returns to his plan in the dirt -- He then circles a group of four smaller circles in the dirt and draws a line to the radio tower. “your group will infiltrate the radio tower and stop the broadcasts.” He circles the three remaining small circles, directing the cluster to the train tracks before making the line branch into three different directions. “Meanwhile, Brass, Lance and myself will serve as distractions, we will enter the city together and start a fight to gather attention, once pursued the three of us will split at the train station to cause more mayhem across the city. Understood?”

* * *

The plan was initiated and Lance, Galvin and Brass took the lead into the mob of Rockets unleashing Dragonite, Scizor, and Kama respectively. Seeing the trio's pokemon emerge the Rockets sent out their own pokemon, a Raticate, Ekans, Koffing, Grimer, Drowzee, and a Magneton entered the field and hell broke loose.

Lance parkoured his away off buildings and the ground, even around the Rocket's pokemon, to kick one of the Rockets square in the face, landing perfectly on his feet afterwards with his arms in the air. Everyone just kinda stared at him, both stupefied and amazed.

Despite that oddity, the battle resumed and Scizor struck an Ekans with a metal claw. The Rocket who was kicked was down for the count and the one next to him threw a punch at Lance, to which Lance dodged and grabbed a nearby trash bin to bashed the Rocket with it before turning the can upside down and catching yet another Rocket with and kicking it over. Dragonite didn't even react to Lance's shenanigans and unleashed a flamethrower on the Magneton, knocking it out in an instant.

Meanwhile Kama, Brass's prized Kabuto, was screeching and clinging to Raticate's face scratching away at it until it was finally knocked off. The dome pokemon flew through the air with grace and landed on a Rocket's chest, Kama wasted no time scuttling to the face of it's enemy all while foaming salt water bubbles. Once reaching its destination he wasted no time unleashing its multiple leg fury. The Rocket let out a muffled scream and eventually ripped the tiny murder machine off his face and threw it aside.

The poor guy's face was now covered in cuts and he screamed louder as the salt water burned his face. Kama landed on its back screeching before flipping itself upright and making another screech, this time a Metal Sound. Everyone winced at such a sound. Galvin continued to watch in horror as Kama ripped apart the battle field. How Brass was able to control that pokemon was beyond him. He looked to his friend, Brass looked so proud of Kama as a tear shined in his eye.

All that remained was a Grimer. Kama let out a battle cry. The poor Grimer fled for its life.

Either way, their job has succeeded. They had created enough sounds and a big enough mess to gain the attention of even more Rockets. The three returned their pokemon and bolted for the train station.

* * *

“How many are outside the building?” Gwen inquires.

“Too many,” Simon grunts in return. He ducks back into the alleyway just in time to avoid a grunt's watchful eye.

“I see, this is problematic.” Gwen mumbles. “We can't sneak in dressed like this and if Kairi and I used our Soul Forms to bust in we would be exposed immediately.”

“It's not like they have uniforms lying around.” Nick sighs. At that moment mail came to Kairi's PokeGear, alerting her with a vibration. She hoped it was something from Steel or an update from the other group but it was the photo from Ice Path. Geez. Of all the. . .

Wait.

That's it!

Kairi flips through the collection of photos on her pokegear to one that was taken a couple months back in the Goldenrod Underground. For the sake of being dumb, she and Simon had dressed up in fake Rocket Uniforms at the Photo Center below for a photo with their pokemon. They both look incredibly dorky in retrospect, but that's besides the point. She shows the photo to Simon and points to it for emphasis. It takes him a moment to register what she's saying but once he gets it he smiles and takes her hands into his.

“Kairi! You're a genius! There's probably enough leftover uniforms for all of us too!” Simon takes her by the hand and leads the way to the underground without being caught by any Rockets milling around. They make their way to the underground and to the photo shop unnoticed but only for several seconds. The female grunt must have heard them coming down even with their light steps.

“Hey! You four! Get over here, we got your uniforms ready!”. . . She wasn't attacking at all. Perhaps she didn't even know who they were. Everyone muttered a yes and hurried along. The woman stopped Kairi though. Everyone began to sweat. “What's with this girl? She aint talking at all.”

“Does it matter?” Simon sneered. “She was hand picked by the heir himself. He's expecting her soon, are you really going to keep him waiting over something so trivial?”

“. . .T-the heir?”

“Did I stutter?” Simon snarls. He marches up to the grunt and jabs a finger into her chest. “I am sure I made it clear. We are needed asap and you are delaying us. If you know what's good for you, you will leave us alone and let us do as we need. Am I clear?”

“O-of course sir! I'm so sorry!” The Rocket began to quiver and covered their head. Well, wasn't that a blessing. The four were all handed uniforms from the costume studio, apparently there was a shortage of uniforms at the moment, and sent them into the changing room to dress up.

Simon is the first to step out. He gives yet another glare to the woman as he stands on the left hand side of the door way. The woman hides once more. Nick is the next to exit, he stands on the opposite side of Simon, standing tall and proud (which took a great amount of effort to do). Gwen followed with her usual graceful steps. She scoffs at the Rocket woman as she hides from all of them. Kairi was the last to come out. She adjusts her white gloves with a snap and leads the other three out of the underground with a blank expression on her face.

The group breaches the upper levels of the city and expels gasps of relief.

“Excellent work Simon,” Gwen complements with a small smile. “They believed your act.”

“Y-yeah. . .thanks.” He awkwardly rubs the back of his neck, sighing. “It. . . it took practice. . .” Kairi touches his forearm with a smile. He manages to smile back. “Right, let's get going to the radio tower.” The group walked through the wrecked streets and debris littering what remained of the streets. Galvin's plan must have worked rather well as various Rockets ran up and down the streets in search of the three that caused the mess in the first place. Some glanced at them in demand for help but Simon quickly scared them off with a snarl, informing them they were needed by the heir in the Radio Tower and this is their problem to deal with.

* * *

Rockets typed away at the various computers to produce propaganda and other nonsense. Scientists roamed around, collecting papers and information. No one paid them much attention. Some would occasionally glance up but did nothing more than that.

These had to be new members. Well, it would make sense, Team Rocket was more than likely working underground for the last two years which would be a perfect opportunity to find new members. There could possibly be some desperate trainers who must have joined to save themselves or for other reasons. A case like that is somewhat sad, but they'll get their asses kicked in the end.

With good timing the heroes walked out of the eyesight of a familiar face. Storming down the stairs in anger was none other than Sean. His irritation is clear as he adjusts his red tie before fixing his black suit jacket. He mutters a string of curses under his breath, kicking the first floor door open. The door hits a random grunt in the face, breaking their nose, but he doesn’t give a damn.

His coal colored eyes are narrowed, jaw clenched close tightly and his hands are balled into fists. He swings his head around to find the cause of disturbance only to be greeted with a foot to his face. He staggers back a step or two. He cups his nose in disbelief, holding it for a second or two, as if he's registering what just happened.

He was kicked.

Kicked in the face.

Some asshole seriously flying jump kicked him in the face.

Slowly, he turns his head in the direction of the bastard that dared to kick him. Lance stood there smugly. Sean glared at him as he clenched his fist raising it and aiming for Lance's face.

"You son of a bitch! Do you know who I am?!"

"Of course I know." Lance laughs, grabbing Dragonite's pokeball. "An insignificant asshole who's only holding the fort down for daddy." The dragon pokemon bursts forth, taking flight in the air once Lance quickly secures an arm around the pokemon's foot. He bids Sean a farewell, disappearing into another part of the city. Sean wipes the blood from his nose with a scowl. The young man takes off running without a second thought. He could not afford a failure after these two years of careful planning.

As Sean ran through the city he noticed how wrecked it was, like who was the asshole that did this!? The streets were torn up, some of the buildings had some broken windows and bashed corners. Even the trashcan was beat up! Who the hell wrecks a trashcan?

The roads were barricaded by wreckage and thus making it difficult to make it to where Lance supposedly landed. Sean took a moment to catch his breath before running towards the wreckage and preparing to climb. However in the corner of his eye he saw something speeding towards him. Brass swerved through the wreckage on his bike and hit a particular spot of broken stone and concrete. Using it as a ramp, he flies into the air with a huge child-like grin on his face and the back wheel smashes into Sean's face, just as he hoped. This causes more pain for the redhead as his nose makes a loud cracking sound and leaves black tire prints on his face. Sean lands flat on his ass, cradling his nose (which is broken for sure now). Brass easily swerves to a stop some distance down the road and gives Sean a smug look, daring him to chase him down.

Not him too. Not Shinjiro's damn friends too. Is every force of nature trying to stop him today? What's next? Cry baby Simon? That annoying bitch Kairi? Sean jumps to his feet and yells profanities at Brass, who has landed pretty far off. Augh, if he got his hands on either of those two's necks.. With an angry grunt Sean broke into a dash towards Brass who started pedaling upon seeing the running Sean and was soon off way ahead of him. Sean didn't care though, Brass couldn't run forever, not when Sean shifted into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE.

As if he actually could perform such a feat, being so blind with anger and running so fast, he ended up tripping over his own feet and faceplanted into the dirty wrecked ground, scuffing his face.

Growling, he grit his teeth like the fangs of a Houndoor ready to strike. He pulls himself upright to sit on his knees. His face goes blank, not a single emotion is registered on his face. Then he begins to laugh in mockery.

His laughter is abruptly cut short as an explosion occurs right behind him. A light blinds him, dirt, dust, and debris fly with a powerful wind. He can feel the residue electric energy dance over his clothes. No. Nononono. What the hell is it now?!

Sean looked around him, angrily whipping his head in every plausible direction. Slowly, his eyes rose up to the sky. Dressed in yellow and black was Galvin, thunder sparked from his fingers with a smug grin.

"Hello again Hoffman. It's been a while hasn't it?"

God.

DAMMIT.

* * *

Kairi glances around when she enters the room. It's definitely a director's office but, why is the director still even here? Wouldn't they. . . you know, move him to a secret location? Whatever. . . If this is the guy with an all access key who is she to complain? The group walked up to the man seated at the desk. He seems to be talking to himself. Kairi squinted her eyes as this man began to ramble about how he decided to air a show to praise Team Rocket.

Yeah. This dude is off his rocker.

He seemed to notice them gathering around him and looked quite panicked. He stumbles to his feet, sweating.

“Damn. . .! You brats again!”

“That voice!” Simon exclaims. “It's Petrel!” The Team Rocket Executive rips off the skin of the face of his disguise right off with a crazed smirk.

“It's been a long time since I've seen any of you! Did you all really come here to stop us? Tough luck kids, we aren't going down! You kids will be six feet under in no time!” Kairi makes a face but prepares Mitten's pokeball no less. On release the cow pokemon curls into a ball, flinging herself over the desk and into Petrel's stomach. The adult flies back into the black leather swivel chair with a grunt. Slowly, the chair spins around as he catches his breath.

“You'll pay for that you brat!” Petrel snarls once he pulls himself together. Even though the adult was loaded with Koffings with the attack self destruct Kairi did not bat an eye and disposed of all of the poisonous gas pokemon. Petrel sweated a little. The adult then shrugged, trying to keep himself composed from such a humiliating defeat. He pulls on a smug look as he reaches into his utility belt for something. He flips a silver key in the air and catches it with ease.

“Well, it doesn't matter if you beat me. Without this key, you'll never be able to reach the real director in the underground storage facility or Archer on the top floor!” Petrel laughs but he is only punched in the face. Laughter stops. He falls over. Kairi collects the key off the red carpet floor as the Executive rolls on the floor cupping his bloody nose.

“Good job Kairi.” Simon complements.

“Who will head to the underground?” Gwen inquires. The group tries to formulate a plan, unaware of Petrel slowly rising from the ground until it's too late.

**_“Alert! We have four intruders on the 5th floor, South Wing. Capture and destroy them immediately!”_ **


	24. Part Two: Chapter Twenty Four

When the four exited the Radio Tower with great haste they shed their disguises, which littered the wrecked streets. As soon as they entered the underground they ran into yet another kimono clad girl. Dressed in blue and lined in gold, she seemed to be younger than the others.

“Team Rocket in black suits have been running around. . .I was wondering what was going on.” She looks over Kairi with a smile, noting the silver key in her hand. “So, you took on Team Rocket? You are impressive.” the girl beams and her eyes sparkle. “You may be able to face the legendary Poke. . .” Realizing what she almost said, the girl laughs awkwardly. “Never mind, I must go now.” The kimono clad girl quickly hurries off but not before pausing to spin on her way out.

Everyone just glances at each other and shrugs. These kimono girls are so odd. . . Not to mention when they appear always seems a little too convenient.

Nonetheless, Kairi unlocks the lock on the steel bolted door and pushes the door upwards. It makes a loud clunk as it comes to a stop. Down the hallway is a single staircase leading down. A faint light can be seen shining down below meaning there are Rockets down there and willing to stop them.

The group arrives on the second basement floor in no time. They've yet to be spotted but it doesn’t take long for Sean to arrive. He looks like a complete mess with his suit covered in dirt and dust, chunks of debris in his red hair, his nose twisted in a gross angle with trails of dry blood underneath it. He heaves angrily.

“Damn it! I should have known this was your work Miller! You insufferable bitch!” Sean breathes out his mouth. His eyes dart to Nick and he's suddenly calm. He adjusts his tie and takes a step forward. Nick steps back, trembling.“. . .But, you've brought back what is rightfully mine. . . so, I will thank you for that much.” Kairi takes Nick's trembling hand into her own and both Gwen and Simon stand in front of Nick. Sean glares. “What do you think you're doing Simon?”

“I'm taking you down,” Simon glares back at his brother with intensity. “I'm gonna make sure you pay for all the crimes you committed.” Typhlosion bursts from its pokeball, getting into a defensive form on all four paws.

“Fool!” Sean booms letting his own Typhlosion enter the battlefield. “You really think you can take me on?! I'll destroy you, you traitor, and reclaim what is mine!” The two blaze pokemon snarled at each other as they pounce on each other's necks with claws at the ready.

“Kairi, Nick.” Gwen curtly calls their names as she watches Simon and Sean duke it out. “Proceed forward without us for the time being. We'll catch up as soon as possible.” Kairi nods, tugging Nick along with her down the hallway. When they make some distance from all the fighting Kairi comes to a stop to check on Nick. He takes his hand from her as if it burned him, pulling them to his chest with heavy shaky pants. He leans against the wall but his legs are shaking so much it looks like he'll fall to his knees at any second.

She's not really sure what to do. She never got a chance to talk to Nick after Sean's brutal abuse at the Mahogany Town base. Should she give him space or not? Kairi reaches out to Nick but withdraws at the last second. Nick grabs her by the wrist when she attempts to give him space. He looks terrified as before.

“I'm sorry,” he apologizes. “I came all this way to help you but. . . I'm still scared. I didn't think we'd run into S. . .Sean. . .and. . . I froze up. That look in his eyes. . .I. . .please don't leave me alone Kairi.” Kairi nods to her friend. With the utmost caution, she reaches out to Nick and pulls him into her arms. She cannot speak to comfort him, only her actions can now. Tension leaves Nick after a minute or two and he returns the hug. "Sorry," he apologizes once more. Kairi shakes her head, holding him out at arm length. She smiles and pats him on the head. ". . .Thanks. Now, let's get going."

The duo continued deeper into the tunnel, encountering burglars and various members of Team Rocket on the way but that did not stop them. Together they tag teamed all that approached them and got in their way. Through a doorway and down a dimly lit hall was the final room of the underground passage. If Petrel was anything remotely close to a reliable source the president would be here. . .

The next problem was how to deal with this situation. This room was lined with narrow halls that Rockets marched up and down. There were crates in the halls but timing was important. . . or they could rush attack all the Rockets. They would never see them coming until WHAM. Defeated on the floor.

“Rush attack. . . Rush attack seems good.” Nick nods. The two friends take each other's hands and bolt down the narrow hallway. Their closed hands smash into a grunt's stomach and he falls to the floor in pain, cradling his stomach. With a quick turn around the corner they hit yet another grunt in the stomach and Kairi kicks him for extra measure. Now all that remained was one grunt. Sure, he was taller than the rest, but, this would be easy. She was way stronger than he could possibly be.

On the count of three the two rush forward. Fists to the man's stomach, he kneels over and Kairi swipes a leg against his, knocking him over flat on his face. In the process his hat falls off. Kairi pauses. Nick looks baffled.

“What are you doing?” he asks. “We need to keep goi-”

“What in tarnation hit me?” the Rocket grunts, rubbing his sore head. “Felt like a Tauros. . ..” Kairi's eyes widen in disbelief. Hell no. . . That can't be. . .

The grunt turns around preparing a pokeball as fire burns in his eyes. “That ain't gonna stop me! I'll make sure you brats know what it feels like to get run over by a real Tauros!” Kairi clenches her fists and jaw.

“W. . .Wait.” Nick gasps, finally realizing why Kairi came to a stop in the first place. “T. . .Terra? Terra is that you?” But his questions remained unanswered when the Rocket released a Tauros in the narrow hallway. Nick fumbles with Blaster's pokeball when the bull pokemon begins to charge towards him and Kairi. Thankfully Feraligatr was able to form in time and grab the bull by the horns. With a snarl the big jaw pokemon flips the bull over, slamming it into the ground.

"Terra, you joined. . . joined these monsters?!" Nick demands. "Why the hell would you do that?!" The Rocket blinks, realizing he hadn't misheard anything and this kid was in fact using his first name to talk to him. He squints his eyes, trying to figure out who the hell this kid was. Color drains from his face. He runs a gloved hand through his hair. Shit. That was Nick. Of all the people to find him like this!

. . .Wait. That blonde next to him. . . Is that. . .

"Kairi? Kairi the hell have ya been?!" Terra snarls, ready to start a fight. Kairi herself gets into a defensive stance. Nick can't believe they're both ready to wrestle each other.

"T-Terra! Wait! We don't have to fight, just, tell us wh-"

"Shut ya goddamn mouth Sakati." Nick flinches under Terra's gaze. "We got desperate. We needed the money when the ranch began to sink so much. Kairi left us and ever came back home. . . takin' all that money she earned and kept it all to herself like a selfish pig!" Terra jabs his thumb into his chest. In retrospect, it was painful but he was too angry to care. "She was supposta share it with us! Her family! So, where've ya been Kairi?!"

Kairi is unable to respond. She glances away for a simple moment but glares at her brother once more.

"She. . . she can't talk Terra."

"I said shut up Sakati. You better keep them lips closed or I'll come over there and break ya jaw! She should just stop playin' hard to get and spit it out!" If Kairi could growl at her own brother she would have. She's getting ready to jump Terra but Nick stands in front of her, forcing himself to talk on her behalf despite his fear.

"Team Rocket hurt her Terra. She isn't refusing to talk to you! She can't! Team Rocket attacked her and hurt her! She hasn't been able to talk for years because of that! They hurt all of us Terra!" Nick lets out a shaky breath. "They hurt all of us. . . they kidnapped Simon and beat him, they. . . the heir did terrible, awful things to me. . . Team Rocket burned down Gwen's house, tried to kill her parents and kidnapped one of her family members! Kairi has been chasing them down for the last two years. That's why she vanished Terra. . ." Nick's voice grows soft.

"I'm sorry, I was supposed to tell you what happened to Kairi but. . . after all the things they did to me. . . I just wanted to forget everything. Our adventure was nothing like the things on TV and Arceus, it was terrifying. . ." Nick begins to hyperventilate as everything comes rushing back to him. Kairi turns her back on Terra and comes to her friend's aid, comforting him to the best of her abilities. Nick slumps to his knees and she follows him down. His fingers are holding onto Kairi with such strength they're turning white.

"I. . .I always knew Team Rocket was bad." Terra mutters. Feraligatr growls at him the moment he tries to step forward. He awkwardly rubs his neck and sighs. ". . .But, the ranch. . . It was so bad, everythin' seemed like it was dying and the pokemon were gettin' sick so often. It was real hard to make a livin' . . .I tried ta leave on my own journey to get money too but ma didn't want me ta leave and vanish like ya did Kairi. . ." Terra looks away ashamed. He runs a hand through his hair. "I felt like we were cornered and then, some invitation to join Team Rocket came. . . it was almost like a miracle. . . I. . .I took the opportunity. Ma doesn’t know what I do, she thinks I got some nice job in the city that brings in so much money and then. . . the ranch started to get better. . . and we gained tons of profit again. . ."

"I mean, that was great an' all, but. . . I didn't like it. I didn't like. . . bein' a Rocket." The older male lets out a sigh, motioning to his sibling. "And then, you appear for the first time in years Kairi. . . You look. . . so well off. Way prettier than I remember and in all new clothes and everythin'. . . I felt mad. . . It looked like you took all the funds for yaself and forgot about ma an' me. I knew Team Rocket was bad but I had no idea they hurt ya and yer friends Kairi! That's unforgivable!" Terra clenches his fist. "I gotta find a better way to help ma and the ranch! I ain't. . . I ain't workin' for Rocket any more!" Terra turns to his Tauros and gives him a shake.

“C'mon buddy. I know that flip didn't put you down for the count.” With that said Tauros stops playing dead and gets to its hooves a few moments later. “. . .Kairi. Sakati. I'm sorry for how I acted. Go ahead and get the director outta here. Stop Team Rocket.” With a nod, Kairi pulls Nick to his feet once he confirms he's alright. The two rush down the hall leaving Terra alone. He sighs, glancing down to the floor. He notices his uniformed hat, but instead of picking it up he kicks it.

“C'mon buddy, we got some Rockets to smash.” Tauros makes a noise in agreement and Terra smiles back. “Atta boy.”


	25. Part Two: Chapter Twenty Five

There's been no sign of Sean, Gwen or Simon since they engaged in battle. Honestly, if Kairi didn't know any better there was a good chance the pokemon battle was over but now the two brothers were wrestling each other and Gwen was possibly cheering it on. As much of a lady she was, she was down with watching Sean get his ass kicked.

On the return to the Radio Tower with the key in hand Galvin met up with the duo and informed them he will accompany them in climbing the tower once more. Rockets tried to stop them but Kairi had none of that. She lets Mittens free and with a rollout the cow like pokemon plows over all that stood in the way of her trainer and friends. Kairi pats Mittens on her head for her work and slides the key card though the card reader for the door on the far right on the third floor.

A grunt is clearly surprised as they step in but Kairi kicks him in the face, shutting him up immediately. The trio climbs up the stairs where they run into executive Proton, the young man that was in charge of the Slowpoke Tail incident in Azalea Town. He smirks, casually tossing a pokeball up in the air and catching it with each 'well' he utters.

“What do we have here?” Catching his pokeball for the final time he points a finger to Kairi's face, who's clearly unamused. “Once again you appear to ruin our plans. Well, not this time!” Piaki glared, cheeks sparking with thunder as she let out a low growl on Nick's shoulder. The female Pikachu leaps off her perch and takes a stance before Proton, ready to fight. Nick nods to his pokemon.

“Kairi, go on ahead. I'll keep him busy.” Kairi gives him a look questioning if this really was alright. He smiles and nods, reassuring her. Kairi nods in return, Galvin takes her by the wrist and they head to the staircase. Proton growls, and makes an attempt to stop the two but Piaki cuts off his path and slams her body into his stomach with a volt tackle.

Grimacing, Proton sends out his Golbat to strike with an air slash. Piaki endures the attack, following up with a double attack discharge and thunder combo taking the giant bat like pokemon down. Proton, taken back a bit by the boy. He's not stupid. He knows exactly who this kid is, their heir's so called lover, he was so sure this kid would be so weak and pathetic. Clenching his jaw the adult adjusts his hat and releases his Weezing. The poison gas pokemon coughs up a sludge bomb, smacking Piaki in her face. As she tries to wipe the gunk from her face Weezing slams into her at full force, flinging her into a wall.

Nick cradles his precious pokemon in one arm, thanking her for her work, and releases Blaster. The big jaw pokemon lives up to its name as it locked Weezing in a hard hitting crunch attack. Proton smirks, ordering an explosion attack.

On the floor above Kairi glances back to the staircase as she feels the explosion shake the floor. Galvin places a hand on her shoulder, reassuring her it would be fine. That was until they reached the elevator. With a ding the doors slide open and Ariana steps out, casually fanning herself with a black silk folding hand fan. She sighs exasperatedly but clearly annoyed. She continues to fan herself as she begins to speak.

“Come now, really?” she scoffs. “You're still pursuing us, little rat? Haven't you caused enough ruckus?” she sighs. “Is it truly bad for a woman to search for her husband and wait for his return?”

“You took over an entire city and threatened its citizens.” Galvin deadpans. Ariana stares at him for several moments before sighing and fanning herself once more.

“People do crazy things when they're in love.”

“I'm pretty sure you stole that line from a movie.”

“Enough of this!” Ariana snarls, throwing a pokeball to the younger trainers and an Arbok is released in a white light. The cobra pokemon hisses at the two trainers with an intense stare. Galvin places a hand on Kairi's shoulders as he prepares a pokeball from his belt.

“Alright, I leave what's ahead to you Kairi. I'll open the elevator but you gotta run fast, alright?” The blonde gives her senior a quizzical look but nods no less. Galvin tosses his pokeball as if it was a baseball. It misses Ariana, hitting the up button on the elevator to her surprise.

The light above the elevator indicates it's coming down meaning this is time for Kairi to act. Arbok goes to attack but it's immediately intercepted by Galvin's Scizor. The pokemon had slipped from behind Ariana and grabbed the cobra by its tail and tossed it away. Kairi is almost amazed, not only had he wagered missing the elevator's operation buttons but he wagered breaking the pokeball of his prized pokemon.

Nonetheless, focusing on her task at hand, the narrow hallway limits down her options of how to get around the executive. Kairi decides to take a wager. She runs right up to Ariana as the elevator makes its arrival known with a ding. The woman tries to take a swing at her but at the last second she ducks and slides between her legs and tumbles into the elevator.

As Kairi smashes the close door button she catches the sight of Ariana's Arbok crashing into her, causing them both to smash into the wall. Kairi laughs in her own special way but when the elevator dings she comes to a stop. She pulls herself together, clutching Boomer's pokeball and steps out of the elevator into the observation floor.

The moonlight seeps in through the frosted tall glass windows of the observation deck. Kairi blinks. She hadn't really paid attention to how much time had passed on this mission. Had they really been at this all day? She shakes her head. No matter, this mission is almost done. The last executive had to be up here and once he's captured it's all over.

Archer isn't really surprised when she confronts him. The Houndoom at his side growls but he calmly pets the pokemon on its head to silence him.

“I've heard much about you over the years Ms. Miller.” he smiles looking mildly amused. “You're the only known human alive able to perform Soul like capabilities without the use of a partner pokemon as a direct descendent of Suicune. Despite our heir's efforts to scare you into submission you come back even more powerful and direct as ever. It's a shame you've denied our organization's invitation, you have valuable skills and capabilities.” Kairi glares. He calmly laughs.

“Oh come now, no need to give me that look. I acknowledge your decision, although it's a poor one, and so you will be executed when Giovanni returns.” Archer smiles calmly. “You'll be remembered as a fallen hero in the eyes of the people. Someone as unique as you deserves that much.” He pauses, furrowing his brows. “Your friends, however, will not have such respect in death. Especially that traitor. They're all rather. . . dull and pathetic.” Kairi throws her pokeball in irritation. It smashes against the adults face. He makes no sound nor movement although.

Boomer appears before Kairi, snarling at the pokemon of its species and its human owner. Archer decides to smile.

“A battle before Giovanni's return? How kind of you. Alright,” he folds his arms behind his back. “Houndoom, eliminate that meager pokemon.” The dog-like pokemon leap for each other snarling and slashing with claws. Jaws snap with vicious bites and blistering flames. Kairi navigates around the two hounds and jumps on Archer. The adult is surprised by the sudden assault but he fights back.

The adult grabs her by her hair and throws her aside but she comes back as determined as ever. Fists locked together, she swings up nailing the underside of Archer's chin with incredible force. Despite stumbling, he grabs her by the collar of her shirt and goes to the floor, his feet slam into her stomach and kick her into a row of wooden seats lined with red cushioning.

Kairi gets up despite the pain. A fist meets his cheek, a boot to his stomach as he stumbles back. She tackles him to the ground and delivers a series of punches to his face. The adult gets her by the throat in an iron grip. Kairi scratches and spits at the man's face. Archer releases her, completely disgusted by her childish actions. Kairi pounces once more.

In the end, she succeeds in subduing him. The same goes for Boomer. The Houndoom looks quite proud of his win and wags his tail. After restraining Archer she drags him down to the police waiting outside. On the way out she noted the building was cleared of all Rocket Associates and the proper employees were in the building, informing everyone via radio that Team Rocket has been taken care of by the Soul Chamber and Lance of the Elite Four.

Once she drags the man outside, Archer is shoved into a police vehicle with all the other executives despite all his struggles and yells of protest. Kairi disregards him as the vehicle drives away. Looking for her friends, she passes her seniors discussing the cost of repair for the damage caused to the city. Judging by the look on Brass and Galvin's faces it was going to be expensive. Kairi catches a glimpse of yellow by an ambulance. Worried, she weeds through the crowd to the emergency vehicle. Simon is laying on a stretcher with a bored look on his face. Before she can even get his attention he's loaded into the vehicle and taken away.

"Don't worry too much. It's just a minor stab wound." Gwen smiles, patting her on her shoulder but that smile fades into a scowl shortly after. "That dastardly heir stabbed him in his side and took that as a chance to escape! He knew that was Simon's weak side. . . he must have stabbed him there once before."

"He'll be fine, right?" Nick inquiries. Gwen nods her head.

"I'm sure he will, it will probably take him a week or so to recover although." Gwen looks to the damaged streets and sighs. Much of the rubble was cleared away so emergency vehicles could get in, but there was still so much left laying around. "We should go find rooms for the night and in the morning we'll help clean up. Acceptable?" Kairi nods. Smiling, Gwen walks Nick to the PokeCenter. Kairi lingers behind to see if there’s anything Lance or her seniors want to pass on as well. There's not much other than a thank you for her work and contribution on the mission so they all head to the center as well.


	26. Part One: Chapter Twenty Six

The following morning a small parcel is delivered to Kairi. It's a small red velvet rectangular box closed tightly with white ribbons with a sealed envelope along. Inside the box is a beautiful sparkling red feather tipped in white and green. Galvin encouraged her to keep it to herself since she was the one that led the liberation of the radio tower and it was addressed to her after all.

The letter claimed the feather was known as a rainbow feather. According to legends it was a feather of the legendary pokemon Ho-Oh, the guardian of the skies, the very pokemon who brought Suicune, Entei and Raikou back to life when they perished in a fire at the Burnt Tower long ago.

Galvin pats her on the head, reminding her they need to go help clean the city today. Kairi groans in her special way but gets up for the day.

* * *

A week passes and Goldenrod is back to its former glory. Simon is to be released from the hospital as well after recuperating from that vicious stab wound. It was Gwen and Nick who decided to pick him up leading to where Kairi now stands, before the shrine in Azalea Forest. There was a strange air around the shrine but nothing was happening.

The young woman nearby smiled and giggled. Kairi gave her a curious glance over. She was wearing a green tomesode decorated with a silver-green flower and vine design. Her green obi was tied in a darari musubi knot. White stockings on her legs and simple wooden sandals on her feet.

Her blonde hair was cut short and her tips were a light green color. In her hair was a green carnation hair clip decorated with silver chopsticks and golden tassels. There was something. . . special about her eyes but Kairi couldn't put her finger on it.

“Would you like to hear about the guardian of the forest?” Kairi nods to the woman. The shrine maiden smiles and continues to brush fallen leaves away from the small stone path surrounding the shrine. The woman happily tells her tales of a small fairy pokemon that loves a world of peace and a forest full of green life. The tale goes on for some time but Kairi does not mind it. It's only the two blonde's until Nick suddenly appears, out of breath and breathing heavily. Kairi begins to fret over her friend but he assures her he's just fine.

“I just. . . I had to find you as soon as I could.” Nick pauses to take a deep breath. “Today is. . . Simon's birthday and Christmas, we should. . .. have a party for him with presents. . . you know, we're all together and everything now. . .!” Kairi smiles brightly at the idea. While working with Simon he never made a big deal out of his birthday or Christmas, it was always simple between them. But now, they're in Goldenrod during a holiday and everyone was here too! There would be many stores to visit and choices in restaurants. Kairi bids farewell to the shrine maiden as she takes Nick's arm and walks him back to the city. The shrine maiden smiles a little, glancing back to the shrine. At long last, it glows a gentle green color.

“You cannot fool me. You were there the whole time darling, weren't you?” the light flickers a little. She giggles. “I see. . . you like her too.” the maiden returns to sweeping once more. “I'm sure we'll have a chance to see her once more.”

* * *

Back in the city Nick and Kairi remember how hard it was to find a gift for Simon. He was a simple person, of course, but he was never specific and always said so and so was okay. They wanted this to be special but this was ridiculous all the same. They went through several stores before they found something they both agreed that Simon would like. It was a simple silver chain. All that remained was finding somewhere to eat a nice dinner (nothing too expensive since Lance, Galvin and Brass would probably join them, Steel as well if Galvin could finally get a hold of her) and purchase individual gifts for each other.

They decided they should work something out over lunch in the food court and that's when they ran into Gwen.

“I'm surprised you haven't gone and rushed off to see Simon.” Gwen comments. “It's almost like you're together.” Kairi goes red, meekly scratching her cheek. “Oh my! You two are together!” Gwen giggles. “I really should have known. . .”

“No way!” Nick exclaims. “How long? How come you didn't tell us?” Kairi scratched her cheek. She puts something down in her notebook and slides it over. “A year and a half?”

“So why aren't you with your lover boy?” Kairi pouts as Gwen pinches her cheek teasingly.

“Oh, it's Simon's birthday.” That takes Gwen by surprise. She lets go of Kairi's cheek and gasps.

“His birthday? I had no idea!”

“Sorry,” Nick mumbles. “The chance never really came up. . .”

“Leave dinner to me!” Gwen exclaims, jumping to her feet. People stare at her for the volume she used. She blushes before returning to her usual demeanor. “I will secure a nice place to eat out tonight. Now if you excuse me, I have some shopping to do.” Nick looks to his lap once she's gone. He hooks his foot around one of the bags by his seat, quickly sliding it under his seat. Kairi gives him a look. He starts to blush.

“Don't say anything to her.” Kairi giggles without sound but his cheeks glow even more vibrant. “I-I mean it! Don't tell her about the thing I got. . .!” Kairi nods, reassuring him her lips are sealed.

* * *

Simon stares dumbfoundead by everything that's going on. Gwen suddenly burst into his room and threw clothes at him, demanding he get dressed in said clothes. Of course he dresses up because Gwen has a way with words. . .and threats. As soon as he pulls on the clothes and exits his room, she takes a moment to adjust his clothes and make him look even more presentable.

Gwen takes a step back, examining her handiwork. Satisfied, she nods to herself and drags Simon out of the PokeCenter with a bag in hand. The sun had set long ago and the city was lit up with the lighting of various lampposts adorned with holiday decorations. All sorts of people drifted up and down the streets, talking to friends or significant others, some trying to find something to do.

Without hesitation Gwen drags him across town to a restaurant called the Cheesecake Factory. He opens his mouth to question her but he's cut off when she holds up a hand and speaks to the man in the entrance of the restaurant, informing him they're the final members of the Miller party, which apparently consists of eight people total. They're guided to a private room of the restaurant with dark tinted windows. Simon can vaguely see figures but he can't tell who they are although. The employee opens the door, mere seconds pass before there's a collective pop and streamers shower Simon as everyone shouts; 'Happy Birthday Simon!!'

He stands there utterly dumbfounded and continues to act in such a way even when Steel pulls him into her arms and showers him with kisses. Galvin closes the door behind the newcomers when Steel seats Simon next to Kairi. The blonde is dressed beautifully for the occasion. She smiles, gently taking his hand.

He wants to question everything, object even, but he can't. Everyone is happy, and everyone is smiling because he was born but he can't help but question why. Why is everyone so happy? Especially after how he acted and everything that happened two years ago. Tears begin to cascade down his face, startling everyone. Kairi hugs Simon tightly and Steel comes to his side, kneeling down.

“What's wrong Simon?” Steel asks urgently.

“I. . .I don't know.” Simon chokes. “I-I mean, I don't know why a-anyone would do this for me. . . After everything that's happened and how I acted. . . I don't. . . I don't deserve this. . .” Kairi holds him tighter than before and he returns her strong hold, clutching her tightly. “I. . .”

“You shouldn't feel bad about what happened Simon.” Nick attempts to reassure him. Gwen nods.

“Nick is right, you were trying to protect them in the only way you knew of and what happened. . . was beyond your control. Don't blame yourself for that. It's quite clear, with all the effort that went into this party, that you are still loved.”

“Yeah, you're a good kid Simon.” Brass grins. Galvin nods.

“The elder wouldn't have given you that Dratini if you weren't.” Lance chuckles thoughtfully. Simon pulls back a little to look Kairi in the face. She smiles softly before nuzzling his neck and giving his cheek a kiss. Steel throws her arms around Simon, affectionately rubbing her face against his head. Soon enough everyone is surrounding Simon and hugging him tightly.

Simon is very thankful to have such kind friends.

After that the party goes into a full swing. People share food or steal from each other but it's all in good humor as everyone laughs and talks about various things with enthusiasm. The group rips apart courses of their meals and when desert comes everyone is whipping out presents. Although it is Christmas Day Simon gets his gifts first.

From Steel he received a new winter coat, Brass gave him various healing items for his pokemon, there were many books from Galvin, Lance gave him a copious amount of money, Kairi and Nick received a simple silver chain necklace and Gwen. . .

She had rings.

In fact, she had one for herself, Nick and Kairi as well.

Simon's ring was a simple platinum band with a square cut amethyst accenting it. Nick's band was much the same with a round cut topaz. Kairi's was a band and flower made of while gold, a single aquamarine accented the center of the flower. Gwen's was made from white gold as well, a pink sapphire centered the band and small diamonds accented it.

“Uh. . . this is very. . .” Simon pauses trying to find the right words “Kind and . . . uh, expensive.”

“Oh it's nothing.” Gwen smiles, waving it off. “They're friendship rings. My friends deserve the best.” she smiles once more. “I never had any friends until I came all the way out here. You guys are all very special to me.” Kairi gives Gwen a smile before she tries to slip on the ring but Simon stops her. All eyes are on him at that exact moment and he's aware of that but he tries to push that aside and focuses on Kairi.

He carefully takes her hand into one of his and with the other he reaches into his pocket, pulling out a ring of his own. A sterling silver ring with an open loop heart accented with white and black diamonds. With shaking fingers he slides it onto her her left ring finger. There's a pause. Everyone is waiting with bated breath for him to say something.

“I-It's a promise ring!” Simon shouts quickly. He cups Kairi's hand in both of his. Her eyes are wide and her cheeks are a vibrant red. “I know we're young now but one day I'll work up the money for a real proposal ring and then w-we'll get married! I know you're busy with all of your work b-but. . .! I want you to know I'll always love you no matter what distance and that you'll always be on my mind.” Simon bows his head. “I. . .I really love you Kairi. . .thank you for being with me for so long.” Kairi's eyes fill with tears and she throws her arms around Simon's shoulder, kissing his face over and over again. The room fills with cheers for the couple.

* * *

The party continues into the late hours of the night. The group leaves the restaurant, leaving a big tip for their server in their wake. Lance heads back to Blackthorn City, The Kanto squad leaves for Soul Chamber headquarters and the remaining four stay in Goldenrod for the night.

Nick waits hours for his friends to fall asleep. When he is sure they're sleeping soundly he quietly pulls on his shoes and jacket and carefully leaves the PokeCenter in his pajamas. On such a holiday night no one is prowling the city at this hour, which is good for him. Nick makes his way to Route 34 all alone. He looks around, expecting someone to appear. Bushes rustle as the legendary beast of thunder, Raikou, appears. The pokemon shows no negative emotions to Nick, in fact, it rubs his head against Nick's arm. The boy smiles, running a hand along the pokemon's fur. Nick takes a seat on the dirt path and Raikou follows suit.

“Sorry, I'm. . . I'm a pretty lousy protector. . .” Raikou nuzzle's Nick's face. The boy smiles and pets the pokemon once more.

 _“It's alright,”_ the pokemon reassures him. Raikou lays on all fours and rests his head in Nick's lap. _“Don't worry yourself so much. Remember to care for yourself and in time, your powers will appear.”_


	27. Part Two: Chapter Twenty Seven

By the time the new year rings in the group has scattered. Nick has departed with Gwen to do some extra training before the Pokemon League and Simon had some personal business to attend to. As for Kairi, she received a letter from the kimono girls of Ecruteak City. She was almost expecting a thank you for her deeds years ago but it turned out to be a letter of challenge.

Why a bunch of kimono girls would want to fight her was beyond her.

Kairi enters an empty dancing hall to find the lights are dimmed and focused on the five dancing girls on stage. When she approaches the stage the girls come to a stop in unison with the music and all but one light turns off. The light focuses on the young lady in a black kimono.

“Welcome, my name is Tamao,” she introduces. “I met you previously in Violet City. In order to bring back Ho-Oh, we needed someone with the right bond with pokemon. We asked Mr. Pokemon to give the mysterious egg to whoever showed true potential. The egg was eventually handed from Mr. Pokemon to Professor Elm and then to you.” Wait. Is she talking about Apollo? Tamao's eyes suddenly turn into dangerous slits. She pulls a pokeball from her long swinging sleeves. “However, being pure alone will not be sufficient to face the power of this Pokemon. I must test you. Are you ready?” 

Umbreon was sent out and Kairi stumbled, sending out Philip. The Meganium stood proud and tall by its master's side. The pokemon stepped forward and the battle began with Umbreon taking the opening move with a shadow ball which Philip hit away with a swing of his neck as it hit a corner of the room and exploded. He then whipped his neck back toward the Umbreon unleashing an onslaught of sharpened leaves at the powerful dark type. Umbreon dodged through the leaves swiftly and sprang forward landing a bite on Philips neck. The majestic grass type yelped and failed to get Umbreon to lose its grip but all efforts of the like were seemingly futile. Thinking quickly Philip used a giga drain which caught Umbreon by surprise, knocking it off and healing the wounds caused by the bite.

The Umbreon nodded to Philip as if to say 'not bad' and then charged forward with a shadow claw ready. Philip dodged and then began to glow a light yellow. Umbreon landed on its feet and then pounced for another attack. Philip waited until the last second and then unleashed a devastating solar beam right in Umbreon's face which spread across its whole being. When the beam finally finished the Umbreon was down, completely knocked out.

"I don't have any Pokémon left." Tamao simply states on defeat. She calmly takes a seat on her knees, bowing her head. The spotlight turns off and comes back on seconds later, shining on the young lady wearing the purple kimono. 

"You are quite strong. You helped me in the Ilex Forest. My name is Koume.” she introduces herself with a smile. “I'm the one that's not so good at directions. My eyes witnessed you defeating Team Rocket when Kurt was in trouble at the Slowpoke Well. Allow me to challenge you and your Pokémon!"

Espeon entered the field and Kairi threw out Boomer. Espeon shot a psybeam which Boomer withstood without flinching. The attack had no visible effect on Boomer as he lunged forward grasping Espeon in a hard hitting crunch. Espeon fell limp as it fainted, Boomer spit it out. The battle was over just like that.

"Oh, you are truly strong." Just like Tamao she takes a seat, the light turns off and shines onto the next girl, a young lady dressed in red. She bows slightly before preparing her own pokeball. 

"You are quite the Trainer. I remember you chasing off that Team Rocket Grunt from right here. I must thank you for that. Although, I am actually a Trainer myself. She who knows the most speaks the least! I am Satsuki--the Kimono Girl! Allow me to challenge you and your Pokémon!" 

Flareon entered the stage and Kairi sent out Mittens. The types seemed equal with no immediate weaknesses to each other but Mittens seemed rather smug nonetheless. Flareon unleashed it's flamethrower which hit Mittens head on, but the cow pokemon stood firmly even after such a heavy attack. A wave formed behind Mittens as it crashed down picking her up as she surfed the incredible wave and slammed into Flareon with the force of radical hydrogen. Flareon staggered as Mittens finished off the fire type with a speedy tackle.

"Ooh, you're good at Pokémon, too." She smiles calmly in defeat. The pattern continues and now a young lady dressed in yellow takes the stage. She's grinning happily with her pokeball clasped in her hands. 

"Excellent fighting spirit! You got me off the ice by pushing me from the back. I am the one who skates in sandals. I am Sakura--the Kimono Girl! I was there to witness you save our dear cousins from the clutches of Team Rocket and your role in destroying their base years ago. Allow me to challenge you and your Pokémon!" 

Jolteon entered the stage. Mittens remained out still having plenty of fight left despite the flame thrower from Flareon. Mittens broke into a roll out and charged Jolteon. Jolteon quickly responded with a thunder attack but the electricity was grounded by the friction of the bouldering cow as Mittens slammed into Jolteon knocking it away and into a wall, where it fell and lay for a moment before jumping back to its feet.

Mittens made a sharp turn aiming to run over Jolteon once more. Jolteon ran into a quick attack which quickly turned volt tackle as the two pokemon ran towards each other head on. The two collided with an explosion which covered the scene in dust clouds. When the clouds cleared Jolteon was knocked out and Mittens was staggering, but still standing nonetheless.

"Oh, so close! I almost had you." And now, only one remained, a cute young lady dressed in blue.

"I am the last one. You were so dependable at the Goldenrod Tunnel. I am the one who twirls even underground. I am Komomo--the Kimono Girl! I looked at you in wonder when you thwarted Team Rocket's mission to take over the Radio Tower. You must show your strength to me now. Allow me to challenge you and your Pokémon!" 

A Vaporeon was released in a shimmering beam and Philip returned to the battlefield ready to go. Philip unleashed Razor leaf on Vaporeon hitting harder and getting close to a knockout. Vaporeon stood using an aqua ring to heal its wounds. Philip makes a face and then throws another razor leaf. The vaporeon dodges it only getting grazed and unleashes a hydro pump on Philip.

Philip stands through the entire onslaught of water with a straight face. He lightly sneezed after the attack was finished. Philip unleashed another horde of leaves overpowering Vaporeon this time.

The battle was over and Kairi had won.

"Oh, you are wonderful. . ." All five spotlights turn on once more, shining on each girl. Tamao carefully lifts up the pillow before her knees and presents the item on it to Kairi.

“We were not wrong about you. You are indeed worthy of this. . . Please take it.” In union all of the girls bow their heads. Kairi looks to the clear glass bell on a string resting on the pillow. She carefully takes it into her hands. It rings ever so slightly and Kairi feels incredibly calm. What a strange feeling. . .

Suddenly, there's a loud bird cry in the air. The kimono girls lift their heads in glee. Their eyes are sparkling as they smile at each other. The doors of the dance hall suddenly open and a little girl comes rushing up on stage. She's out of breath but she looks so excited.

“Big sisters!” She exclaims. “I saw a big shadow of a Pokemon head to the Bell Tower!” Tamao smiles at the little girl and ruffles her hair, thanking her for confirming what they were hoping. She looks to Kairi and bows once more, her sisters following in suit. 

“We'll head to the Bell Tower first. We hope to see you soon Kairi.” The kimono girls and the young girl exit the dance hall leaving Kairi alone. Wait. They're expecting her to take on a legendary pokemon??? What the fresh hell?

And yet, despite that revelation Kairi was already halfway down the Bellchime Trial with her pokemon trailing behind her. They all seemed to be unaware of the impending battle as they kicked up orange, red and yellow leaves. Strange how such leaves existed in this weather but the trees were probably blessed by Ho-Oh so they could continue to thrive even in cold snowy weather.

When Kairi enters the Bell Tower a monk tries to stop her but Kairi pauses to pull the box containing the Rainbow Wing from her bag. There's a faint golden glow escaping the cracks. She reveals what is inside to the monk, mouth agape, he lets her through. 

She quickly returns all her pokemon to their pokeballs and she takes a look around the sacred tower. The tower is old with age but does not swing, sway or falter with the weather. Dirty white walls with thin slit windows that sunlight and drops of pure white snow and golden leaves slide in. The tower is decorated with many bronze statues in the shape of Ho-Oh, green with age, accented with gold. The first step up begins with climbing a stable, but old, ladder. 

The climb to the top of the tower is ridiculous though. There are jumps, slopes and narrow paths. Kairi wonders how the five kimono clad girls were able to beat her here and to the top of the tower. That although, was another question for another day. At long last, she's on the final floor where all that remains is to cross a rather. . . risque bridge. It's two pieces of plywood that reaches out to the final platform and ladder. 

The ladder leads to a gold painted wooden staircase which in turn leads to the blue shingled roof. There's a flat landing on the roof made of stone, there is a giant bronze Ho-Oh statue accented with gold at each corner of the roof. In the center is a golden spire reaching to the heavens. The five kimono girls greet her with a bow.

“Welcome Kairi,” Tamao greets, she motions to the spire. “This is where we welcome Ho-Oh.” The girl slides her hands into her long swinging sleeves, a movement her sisters follow in suit without command. “When the dance we practiced for many days becomes one with the sound of the Clear Bell we entrusted to you, then Ho-Oh shall come down the great arch of the sky once more!” In unison they snap open the fans they pulled from their sleeves and released their partner pokemon. Tamao and her Umbreon take a position at the spire and each of the remaining four girls move to a corner on the rooftop. 

The Clear Bell begins to ring on its own marking the start of the dance as Kairi can faintly hear a koto playing in the distance. A wind blows but the girls continue to dance as orange leaves swirl in the air. Bells hanging from the tips of the roof of the pagoda begin to ring as well. Soon the bells begin to glow a sparking golden light. Kairi looks up to the sky and in a golden light and an explosion of rainbows a giant bird begins its descent.

Kairi's eyes widened in awe. Ho-Oh has appeared before humans after so long and it is because of her. The golden bird flaps its vibrant wings as it floats before Kairi. It stares down at her. The girl adjusts her scarf and prepares for the impending battle.

"That is indeed Ho-Oh," Tamao smiles, eyes shimmering with joy. "The guardian of the skies around here from ancient times. So many have tried and tried, only to fail. . . Kairi, your heart and the Clear Bell in harmony have finally made him appear." Tamao laughs lightly, facing Kairi. "Can't you see? Ho-Oh has been waiting for someone like you all this time. Wouldn't you agree?"

Maybe. Maybe not. Kairi wouldn't call herself a good person but she isn't bad either. She's blind and naive but as if she'll let people get hurt, but for this pokemon to come down for her, there had to be good in her.


	28. Part Two: Chapter Twenty Eight

Kairi believed these kimono girls had to be crazy. They were expecting her to fight Ho-Oh. Fighting a legendary pokemon was completely crazy! Despite that Kairi took up the challenge with her loyal Ampharos at her side. The battle waged for quite some time and the bird was starting to tire out. After firing an Electro Ball the light pokemon follows up with a Thunder Punch to the face that causes the bird to surrender.

Ho-Oh crows loudly, raising its shimmering wings above its head for a moment and once he lowers his wings he bows to Kairi. The girl smiles. She carefully reaches out to the pokemon and just as she's about to make contact with it, she stops. In the distance she can hear a sound. Ho-Oh hears it as well, as he looks attentive and furious. Slowly, a black helicopter rises into view. Kairi's eyes widen when she sees the red R painted on the side of the air vehicle.

How long was that thing around? How could she not notice? Was it the sounds of the battle that drowned it out? Regardless of the reason, it's here now and it needs to be dealt with. The side door of the helicopter slides open letting an Absol and Typhlosion bounce out, aiming for Kairi.

Kairi covers the kimono girls as they avoid an attack of blistering flames from the Typhlosion. With a circular motion of its trainer's arms Wooly sparks furiously, lifting up Typhlosion (much to its surprise) and throws it into the Absol. Ho-Oh takes flight, glowering down at Sean. The redhead grins. Ho-Oh prepares a Sacred Fire only to be hit in the head with a pokeball. There's this sudden and eerie silence as the pokeball hits the rooftop and rattles. Despite the shaking and attempts to break free. . . the pokeball clicks, marking a complete capture.

Dread and horror sinks in. Sean captured a legendary pokemon. Team Rocket has a legendary pokemon to use at their disposal for crimes and nefarious deeds.

The young man's Absol and Typhlosion cease fighting and return to his side with the pokeball containing the captured legendary.

“I'll have to say Kairi, you have more uses to me than I originally perceived.” Sean grins at the pokemon glaring at him from inside its new 'home'. “For so long I've searched for the proper partner to aid me in battle. I needed something strong, something incredible. . .something of legends. And so, I chose Ho-Oh for myself! It was easy to awaken Lugia with Linda's naïve purity but Ho-Oh was another story.”

“We were lucky that someone like Linda fell into our hands, there was no way that luck would happen once more. . . The golden kimono girls were becoming quite evasive to our eyes but it wasn't until one of our members decided to feel up one of those prudes and it was all over the news.” Black laughs to himself. “That idiot told me some blonde hick kid attacked him and then, you.” his eyes lock with Kairi's furious ones. “You showed me your power, the power of Suicune, that very same night. The girl that was being watched by the golden kimono girls was someone blessed and none other than my rival. . .” Sean glances to the platinum ring encrusted with a huge black diamond on his finger. He grins devilishly.

“I knew my decision to choose Ho-Oh was perfect. For legends tell, the legendary beast trio are led by the legendary golden bird.” Sean cackles. “The day of destiny is coming Kairi! It's only a matter of time before you will be my servant, like it or not!” And with one final laugh the helicopter takes off into the distance. Kairi glares and clenches her fists.

Without a doubt that legend was true, the legendary beasts did serve and searched for the golden bird but was it really possible for Sean to Soul transform with Ho-Oh and control her? She needs to return to base and talk to the others.

Kairi turns to the kimono girls to find them chatting among each other. When they end their conversation Tamao bows to Kairi and thanks her for everything. The five girls get into line by age and they make their climb down the tower.

* * *

Simon was walking around in the Safari Zone, he got a part time job helping organize this place. The system for how this place worked was crazy but it did bring in the money so what was there to complain about?

Simon walked about, throwing scraps to the wild pokemon that roamed about. Some came over immediately and some watched from a distance. Those who came too close to Simon for his Furret's comfort are hissed at by the weasel pokemon. Simon laughs a little and pets his little friend.

What a nice normal day after all that craziness.

It lasted for at least five minutes. Like a blur, Entei appeared, grabbing Simon by the scruff of his coat with his teeth and hoisted him away. The Pokemon watched in the distance with shock. The Volcano pokemon deposits him at Route 48. Simon immediately gets to his feet and prepares a pokemon

“That is unnecessary.” Simon drops his pokeball. It talked to him. Holy crap. His arm falls limply to his side and his mouth goes wide open. “Don't overreact.”

“Overreact?” Simon hoarsely responds, running a hand through his hair and over his face nervously. “I'm not overreacting. No sirree. Not at all.”

“Of course.” The pokemon scoffs. “Nonetheless, it is still early but I must release your powers now. The day of destiny is nearly upon us.”

“The. . .. day of destiny?” Simon dumbly repeats.

“Hmm. . . yes.” the pokemon nods. “A battle of huge proportions will strike this land and the power that has slept for so long will be needed in battle.”

“Uh. . .. okay.” Simon pauses for a moment. “Will it hurt?”

“No. It's completely painless. Like. . . it will be a simple transformation from that show you humans watch on that black box.” Is he talking about Power Rangers? Simon slowly nods. If it's like that, then there's no real reason to complain he supposes. Taking that as confirmation Entei spews flames from his muzzle to Simon's feet. Entei himself becomes flames and circles the boy.

Once they fade Simon stands unharmed and in a new set of clothes. It bears much similarity to Kairi's own Soul form, a brown military like uniform with long swinging sleeves like a furisode, He was wearing a brown hamaka tied with a red bow. Tucked into the back of the hamaka was a white cape that resembled a white cloud.

On his feet were black long socks and red gettas. To finish off the outfit change was a black hat trimmed with gold and adorned with an emblem of Entie's 'mask'. As for physical changes Simon's hair had changed to a dark shade of brown tipped in gold and red.

“Let us begin training young man. . .”

“Sure.” Simon nods, putting his hat on his head.

* * *

“The day of destiny is almost here?” Raikou nods to Nick's question. He hums thoughtfully and crosses his arms. “What can I do though?”

 _“I do not know, your time is simply not here yet._ ” The beast like pokemon paces around the human boy. “I can fight, as long as you can command me. Is that acceptable?” Nick nods.

“If it is the best we can do in this state then I'll do my best to fight as well. I'm tired of seeing people hurt. . . I just want to do something to help others.” Raikou nuzzles Nick's hand. The boy smiles, carefully petting the pokemon's head. “I can do this. . .”

* * *

“It's completely plausible.” Steel states rather bluntly. Kairi's head hits the table top. Brass doesn't mind it as he places drinks down on the table. Galvin does give Steel a look although.

“Don't tell her that. It's only a theory at the moment, there's no proof of it and I haven't found any information in the books so far.”

“'So far',” Steel reminds him as she sticks her tongue out at him. “That still means there's a possibility it's true.” Galvin groans and runs a hand through his hair.

“Don't say it like it's fact Steel.” he grunts, pushing her face away from him. He sighs when Steel leans on his shoulder and drapes her arms around his frame. “Nonetheless, we've never had the chance to see if this is a plausible theory or not. As of now, all we can do is just guess. But, you should prepare yourself just in case.” The meeting ends there and Steel and her friends have a merry little chat. Kairi simply bangs her head on the table over and over.

 _“Kairi. . ..”_ The girl stops. What was that? Who was calling her? _“Kairi. . . come and find me”_ She looks around but her seniors are undisturbed. No one else seemed to notice this voice. Who could it be?


	29. Part Two: Chapter Twenty Nine

_“Hello and welcome trainers. Trainers from all over Kanto and Johto have been waiting for this day for the last two years! It’s time for the 25th annual Pokemon League Tournament!”_ The crowd roars with cheer and enthusiasm. _“Today begins the regular rounds. For our viewers at home, trainers without all eight gym badges are still able to participate in the Pokemon League but to reach the top they’ll have to combat a huge swarm of trainers to reach preliminaries.”_

_“Today we have some special guest announcers joining us, the three heads of the Soul Chamber branches. Soul Chamber was previously unknown research and crime stopping organization and rarely made the news until they aided Lance of the Elite Four in stopping the hostile Team Rocket takeover of Goldenrod City. They may be a small group but they all pack a powerful punch! Ms. Selma, you’re the leader of this fine organization correct?”_

_“Yes,”_ Steel giggles, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger. _“Soul Chamber was organized by me and my two dear friends, Brass Elliott and Galvin Oak, after the defeat of Hilda’s Team Rune.”_

_“Really? Reports say the person who brought an end to Team Rune was the heir. Are you trying to say you are the heir of Rune?”_

_“Once upon a time I was.”_ Steel sighs. _“My parents established Rune to spread peace and welfare between man and pokemon. Hilda wanted to do more with the organization, more than my parents would do due to its cruel nature. So, she chose to destroy Rune from the inside, through the Rune Incident Explosion where the Rune I was to inherit one day was destroyed in an instant, and Hilda silently built her own twisted version of Rune until she had enough power to do as she wanted.”_

_“By some daring chance it was me and my friends who tore her down and turned her into the police. After that incident we decided to continue my parents research and help other people in need.”_

_“What is the hiring process of Soul Chamber exactly?”_

_“Oh, well it’s quite hard to believe.”_ Gwen chuckles. _“Soul is actually a rare form of battle, where a human and pokemon become one entity. Not everyone can achieve such a form so it’s hard to find new members and qualified people.”_ The announcers looks at her like she’s mad. Steel laughs a little.

_“As Gwen said it’s hard to believe. . . Hilda was the only person to publicly show off these powers. There were many eyewitnesses to this, Lance of the Elite Four being one, and the Gym Leader Sabrina of Saffron City can back these claims.”_

_“I see. . . People like Team Rocket probably had their hands full trying to avoid you!”_

_“Oh, indeed they do.”_ Steel laughs. _“Even before Kairi joined Soul she was a force to be reckoned with and stopped many nefarious plots of Team Rocket.”_ Steel’s smile fades a little. _“To the point they tried to silence her, their attack rendered her without a voice but that has not stopped her from helping those in need.”_

_“Incredible! It takes guts to dare stand up to such organizations. Soul Chamber has nothing but nerves of steel!!!”_

_“Thank you, but enough about us!”_ Steel laughs. _“I’m ready to see some trainers give it their all!!”_

_“You’re quite right! I’m sure everyone is itching for a fight! The first rounds match-ups will appear on the digital board. When your name appears, head to your arena. Now, who will be able to wow these skilled trainers and take home the gold this year? Let’s begin!”_

* * *

Trainers clash match after match as members of Soul keep an eye on the arena. Attacks and debris flew in all sorts of directions but it was no real problem for Galvin and Brass, who tirelessly walked up and down the various floors of the arena, but by the end of the day nothing was reported out of the ordinary.

Maybe the anticipated attack would be during the tournament rather on this exact day. Regardless of whatever the case was they all agreed to keep their eyes peeled for Sean and stragglers of Team Rocket for the following days. The tournament continued without a sign of Team Rocket but for the moment Kairi didn’t care. It was the start of Badged Trainer matches and Nick was out in the arena now destroying trainers left and right.

Piaki unleashes loud booms of thunder across the field. Blaster pummels foes into submission with powerful hydro pumps. Brave comes from above and dives down to strike foes with a fatal blow. Ember elegantly clomps across the field and envelopes its foe in glittering silver flames. Despite her small size Elle is a force to be reckoned with now that she’s evolved into a beautiful Leafeon and she strikes with furious grass elemental strikes. Lolla has no problem lifting up her foes and throwing them around as if they are simple toys.

Ultimately, Nick made it to the top of his block and he was heading off to the finals after completely crushing any remaining competitors in the semi-finals. The final match would be tomorrow but his friends were already congratulating him like he won. Simon vouched for the idea of a pizza party to which Nick replied “No, let that wait until after I win.” Nick was filled with so much confidence it was almost surprising. But they were happy for him nonetheless. After bidding them all a good night Nick went to bed early that night in preparation for tomorrow’s match.

With him out of the room and on his own the room suddenly became thick with tension. Tomorrow was the final day which means, without a doubt, Team Rocket would strike. It wouldn’t be like any attack before. This time Sean would be equipped with his own Soul power and there was a strong possibility he could control Kairi and Simon. Regardless, they couldn’t back down. They had to bare fangs and attack him with everything they had. . .. There was no room to fail.

One by one everyone excuses themselves and turns in for the night until Steel is alone. The young lady approaches the hotel room’s antique phone. She dials a number and waits as the other line rings.

* * *

The next day was perfect. Sunny and warm despite the winter weather with a few friendly clouds in the sky. Youngsters proudly marched in their shorts. Or are they short pants? This was truly a mystery. But Nick didn’t have time to ponder the identity of short leg attire.

 _“Welcome ladies and gentleman!!”_ The announcer boomed. _“Today is the day we’ve been waiting for, the finals of the 25th annual Pokemon League Tournament!”_ The crowd roars with cheer; much like the finalists, they were all pumped and ready for action.

 _“This tournament has been filled with great and powerful trainers. They’ve clashed head and on and from the rumble the best have risen!”_ The man motions his hand to the red painted corner of the arena. _“In the red corner, all the way from New Bark Town, is Nick Sakati Triggs.”_ The crowd goes wild with screams. Nick awkwardly waves back to the crowd.

 _“And in the blue corner is, How-”_ Steel is cut off before she can finish by a cliched explosion that blows a hole in the roof of the arena. Seconds later Rockets started to flow in through the various entrances and exits. People began to scream. At long last, Team Rocket has arrived. The Elite Four made quick work with clearing an evacuation route for the bystanders in the crowd. Sean honestly didn’t care. If he could crush Soul like he believed he could then the Elite Four would be simply bugs in comparison.

Surprisingly, Nick was not among the mass of people that were evacuating. He was going to take a stand with his friends, even if he didn’t have the same powers they have. Sitting on the backside of the legendary dog, Raikou lets out a powerful roar as he leaps down the halls shocking Rockets with powerful blasts of thunder.

* * *

Simon decided to attack Sean head on. It was, unfortunately, a terrible idea. Dressed in robes of red, cream and green Sean was ‘blessed’ with the power of Ho-Oh and his hope to control those blessed with the legendary beast trio were proven true. Simon obviously made attempts to fight his older brother but even with his corrupted powers Sean overpowered Simon and turned him against his friends. Simon snarled like some animal and jumped for his allies. He bares his teeth and sharp nails at Kairi. After an attempt to snap at her neck Kairi slams her knee into his stomach.

“What a sight to see.” Sean laughs. “The precious couple are at each other’s necks.” Steel, rather irritated, takes a strike at him but he counters with his flames that melt her ice to water. Kairi collects the water using her powers once she throws Simon aside and whips Sean in the face with a blast of water. Sean gives her a dirty glare through his dripping wet bangs.

“A lucky shot and nothing more Miller.” He opens his palm, allowing for a golden flame to appear within it. “I will say I'm impressed that you've managed to resist my thrall for so long, but you will fall just like En--”

“THUNDER!” Sudden and without a proper warning, clouds swirl over the head of Sean and bolts of thunder descend upon him. 

Being soaked to the bone, he is far more susceptible to such an attack. He unleashes a hellish scream, falling to the ground with a thud. While not defeated, his control over Simon, who wears the robes of Entei, falters allowing him to regain control over himself.

Eyes turn to Galvin, the only known member of Soul to have Electric type powers but he looks just as confused as the rest of them. The answer soon appears before them as Raikou and Nick gracefully descends from the higher floor of the bleachers that surround the arena to the battle ground. 

“N-Nick?” Simon questions, teetering just a bit. Steel supports him as he struggles to regain his footing. Nick nods his head and once he climbs off of the Legendary Pokémon's back he glares at Sean’s trembling body. Slowly, the male dressed in Ho-Oh’s robes staggers to his feet. He pulls back his wet bangs, fury burning in his red eyes.

“You fucking WHORE!” He booms. Nick stiffens a little on instinct, something that makes Sean smirk but Nick quickly glares back at him and all of Soul Chamber gets into a defensive stance behind him. “I own you!” Sean snarls, slamming a land to his chest for emphasis. “Should I teach you respect once more?!” 

His knees are shaking and he pales a little at the memories. Those horrifically cruel and unjust memories this bastard put him through. Sean smirks at the display before him, thinking he's always defeated the other and he'll just as easily submit this time but. . . Nick is suddenly before him in a flash with tears of rage in his eyes. 

He swings the sheathed katana with such force that it smashes against his head and it breaks the skin. The Rocket heir is so surprised, he even bit his own tongue. Blood drips into his robes and Sean finds himself at a loss. After everything he put Nick through -- to each him, to educate him, to make him  _ understand  _ \-- that only he can be loved by him. . . he’s still resisting.

What the hell.

He did everything his father taught him.

So why. . . Why is he. . .

“You will  _ never _ own me.” Nick begins slowly. He’s thought of this encounter over a million times and even now, gathering all the thoughts and words is hard. “You are cruel. Disgusting. A goddamn walking  _ disaster _ ! You act as if you're better than me, as if we’re the same but I have more than you'll ever have!”

A fury fills Sean's veins as he grabs Nick by the collar of his jacket and lifts the boy into the air, away from his allies. His face twists into a cruel smug grin as he watches Nick glance to the ground, fear on his face.

“Tell me, what could you possibly have that I don't?” He questions leaning in so close his breath brushes against his face. “I am the Heir of Team Rocket. I have wealth, power and fame! All things someone as lowly as you would desire.” And yet, Nick grabs him by his wrists, meeting his look with a gaze of fury, lacking any sort of fear he showed before.

“I'm human.” He says quite simply. Sean can't help but give him a baffled look. Said look is erased as Nick slams his knee into the gut of his abuser. For a moment Sean falters in the air but Nick continues to cling to him as he attempts to stabilize himself. “I have a heart and soul, and some goddamn common sense to know what you did was a crime! It's not something you can sweep under the rug with your deluded idea of love!”  Nick clenches Sean by the collar of his robes and slams the fist clutching the katana against his face, breaking his nose with such incredible force.

“Despite everything, I'm still loved unlike you! There are people that will go above and beyond for me, despite everything you tried to make me believe! You're nothing but a pathetic, twisted little kid acting out because you didn't get that you wanted!” Nick exclaims, slamming his knee into Sean’s stomach as they wrestle in the air. Sean slowly becomes aware that he has absolutely no control over Nick anymore. 

He must be going mad. That's the only explanation why this turned out this way. Nicolas Sakati-Triggs has nothing. Only people who want to make themselves look better by pretending to be allies to a rape victim. They will never love someone so disgusting and soiled. And yet, down on the ground below, they cheer him on. 

The bird trio leap into the air, in an instant color coordinated capes made from elemental magic suddenly appear drape over their shoulders. Steel makes it to Sean first, delivering a sharp kick to his spine. He cries out in agony, only to be kicked in the side by Brass, sending him spiraling into the abandoned stands. As for Nick, he’s been safely collected by Galvin.

Galvin pauses as he descends to return him to his friends so they can evacuate him. There's a thrumming of electricity coming from this boy. He wasn't like this before. Something about him has changed on a fundamental level.

“Throw me.” Nick demands. Galvin gives him an incredulous look. 

_ “What?!” _ Nick gives him an unimpressed look.

“Throw me.” He repeats. There's an underlying determination in these words. A goal. A power. One, as a Guardian, he knows he cannot allow to slip past his fingers. Galvin gives the three remaining Soul members on the ground an apologetic look before he ascends once more. However, Raikou watches patiently and with anticipation as his reborn friend reaches a critical moment. 

As Steel and Brass keeps Sean occupied, Galvin grits his teeth and he begins the swing. Spiraling, spiraling and spiraling, a twister is formed around the teen. . . and he lets go. Twister and Nick go flying towards Sean, almost like a heat seeking missile but within the confines of the twister, Nick is calm. 

He can feel absolute clarity within his soul. A spark of electricity and the pearl that belonged to his mother is interacting with it. The desire to fight back against the bastard that humiliated and abused him for his sick pleasure.

“You're not better than me Sean.” Nick spits, his hand on the tsuka -- hilt -- of the katana. He takes a deep breath and then leaps forward. The twister parts and there is Sean before him, looking so utterly baffled by this chain of events. “And you never will be!” With that loud, courageous yell, Nick draws the katana. The wind shifts, clouds form, Raikou leaps into the air, thunder strikes Nick. This is quickly proven to be non-fatal as in a blink of an eye, he’s transformed. 

His hair a stark white and his eyes a sharp red. He wears a yellow yukata with markings that resemble the ones found on Raikou -- and much like Simon and Kairi’s, his yukata has a bit of a militaristic touch with the shoulder pads -- around his waist is a black obi secured with yellow and black strings and a white obiage.  Instead of a hanaka, as seen with men wearing yukatas, he wears a pair of yellow formal military-like pants accompanied by white bandages that cover the length of halfway down his lower leg to slilvery combat boots. T o finish his transformation, on his head is a matching yellow hat with an emblem of Raikou that is adored with a big pearl -- a gift from his father to his beloved mother.

“NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, I WILL SURVIVE AND KEEP ON LIVING HOW I WANT!!” Nick swings the katana and several bolts of lightning instantly impale Sean. He howls in pain, and thanks to this intense strike, the injuries from Steel and Brass compile to a point that he plummets to the ground, dropping like a lead balloon.

Nick is grabbed by Galvin once more as he begins to plummet, this time returning him to his friends. Nick hastily sheaths his katana as his friends surround him and praise him for confronting the horrible bastard that abused him while also berating him for giving them a heart attack.

For goodness sake. He was lucky that Steel and Brass were distracting Sean, otherwise he would have gone directly for him and Galvin!

“Shut. . . the FUCK UP.” Sean screams, reminding them he was unfortunately not defeated, only downed. “You all make me so fucking sick! A bunch of broken, replaceable shits that can't do a goddamn thing alone but together?” Gritting his teeth, Sean staggers forward as the flames of Ho-Oh begin to repair his body. His fingers flex and he clenches his jaw. “You’re suddenly stronger? That’s bullshit! You’re all weak! I have been trained since  _ birth _ for this role! To inherit this power!!” His face twists into an outraged expression as he clutches his chest. “NONE OF YOU KNOW TRUE STRENGTH!! I’LL FUCKING PROVE IT TO YOU ALL!”

“C’mon everyone,” Steel grins, pulling her goggles over her eyes -- a motion the rest of her trio follows suit. “Let’s finish this tool off.” The Kanto trio throws their signature Trio Finale Launch and it doubles up with the Johto Trio’s Trinity Fusion Blast and Gwen’s Sonic Metal. The three attacks head for Sean and are about to make a direct hit but suddenly the three attacks change directions with no warning.

“What the. . .?”

“Heads up guys, something else is here. . .!” Indeed there was, and whatever it was, it was throwing everyone around like dolls. Just what the hell is going on? Who was attacking them and how? After being painfully thrown around several times Simon and Nick rise to their feet with a familiar hollow look in their eyes. Whoever was throwing them around bought Sean time to pull that stunt once more.

“At long last. . .” Sean rises to his feet laughing like an insane person. His shoulders shake with each loud laugh. “Father has returned!!”

Oh.

This. . .

This would be a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11/30/2020 edit: inserted the version of the scene from the Nick/Raikou gaiden


	30. Part Two: Chapter Thirty

Giovanni Hoffman was not expected to appear. Honestly, he was the last person anyone thought would appear during this mess. But, unfortunately, he’s here and he’s throwing everyone around like dolls by using psychic powers, making Gwen’s fears of Atlas realized. Simon and Nick are under Sean’s control and that insane redhead is doing everything he can to slow Kairi down and corner her so he can finish her off personally. He most likely would have. . . if she had not ran away.

Yet again a voice of unknown origin speaks out to her, but this time, it beckoned her to the Azalea forest. She knows she probably shouldn’t be doing this when there’s an important fight going on but she feels this is important as well, whatever it may be. Kairi pushes branches out of her way, crushing twigs and dried leaves under her feet as she runs.

When she comes to a halt at long last she is before the shrine. The shrine maiden smiles once more.

“Hello, it’s nice to see you again.” The woman greets. Kairi would have not responded if she had her voice. She pants and looks around her with urgency. This woman is not the source of the voice, so who was it? Who called out to her? The woman giggles with a warm smile on her face.

“You were called here, were you not?” Kairi slowly nods her head. “I expected such an answer. Celebi is looking forward to meeting you. She has important things to tell you.” Kairi squints her eyes in confusion. The woman ignores it and opens the small door to the shrine. Inside is a green light that burns with intensity. Slowly, the light takes the form of a small fairy like pokemon. The pokemon circles Kairi in utter delight. Kairi looks over to the shrine maiden but her smile is frozen on her face, in fact leaves are stuck in mid air and branches are no longer swaying.

 _'Do not worry.'_ Celebi smiles _'Time has frozen. I have things to show you and things to tell you, all will alter the course of the battle your allies face at the moment.'_

 _'Alter. . . the battle?'_ Kairi ponders. She blinks, surprised. Her own voice echoed even though it was a simple thought. Was she communicating with this pokemon with her mind?

_'Yes, with my powers of time I can bring you to events that happened in the past and you can alter them for the better. Usually, such a thing is forbidden but we are in a dire situation and you, human of pure heart, are the only one I can trust to do this job.'_

_'. . .I see, if we really have no choice. Then, lets go.”_ Green lights engulf the two of them into a green hued sphere. The sphere shrinks down in size and flies into the open door of the small shrine. The world inside the shrine is strange to say the least. In the background of a world of dark hues are various flying images and screens depicting many scenes and images.

 _’This is the timestream,'_ Celebi explains _'All events that have happened and are yet to happen are shown here and observed by me.'_

_’Everything?’_

_’Yes,'_ The pokemon nods steering the glowing orb to one of the images. _'The flow of time is fluid but there is usually an ideal path plotted out.’_

_’But the current ideal path is not very ‘ideal’, right?'_

_'Unfortunately, that is the situation.'_ Celebi's eyes scan the world around her. When she finds what she needs a smile spreads across her face. The orb pauses and changes direction for a certain screen. From the outside the events looked quite vague and moved in a motion too fast to properly register what's going on.

The orb presses against the large image and slowly it sinks right in, rippling against the surface like a pebble across the water. Slowly a scene comes into existence and much to Kairi’s surprise Sean is there. But he looks. . . distressed and pained. How odd. Kairi had more or less refused to acknowledge he was a human, to see emotions like these were strange.

Sean is not alone, although. That Ariana woman was there, standing behind Sean and holding him back with one hand on his shoulder. Standing in front of both of them was a rather annoyed man dressed in black with a serious face and his back was turned on the two of them.

“Quit your pathetic crying child.” The man spits. That must be where Sean gets it from. Speaking of Sean he snaps moments later.

“You’re a coward!” The boy snarls. “Because stupid Shinjiro and her pathetic friends beats you, you’re going to leave us behind and clean up your mess!”

“No you blithering idiot.” The man grunts. “I lost because I was full of myself. If I plan on growing stronger I must acknowledge my defeat and work solo. For now.” The man places a black fedora on his head with a grunt. “One day I will return.”

“Who cares about your organization! You had so many men but you failed to lead them and they collapsed! You’re just running off and leaving mother and I behind!”

“What a sharp tongue you have.” The man laughs, looking up at the sky. “Yes. That’s quite true. Which is why, it’s yours. I do expect you to raise Team Rocket to power in my place while I’m gone. You are now Team Rocket, take as you will and shape the world into your image.” With that said the man made his departure. Sean broke from his mother’s grasp and pulled off his shoe to throw it in the direction the man left in.

“Sean, calm down.” Ariana scorned. He gives her a nasty glare in response.

“Don’t talk to me like that! After all the shit that man puts me through he is defeated by Shinjiro and he gives up! He’s such a child! Weak! Disgusting! Pathetic!” With another growl he shoves his mother aside and storms down the path where Kairi and Celebi stood overlooking the scene.

“Outta my way you broad!” Sean shoves Kairi out of his way with a heated glare. Their eyes lock for only seconds but Kairi could see the genuine distress in them. Ew. How weird. Shortly Ariana comes rushing past her to catch her son. As soon as they are no longer within range the two return to the timestream.

 _'What was that?'_ Kairi asks the pokemon.

_'He's just as human as you are.'_

_'Huh?'_

_'That boy you hate. I wanted to remind you of that before we take care of the problem.'_

_'I don't care. He's done terrible and awful things! He hurt my friends and their families!!'_ With a huff, Kairi crosses her arms.

 _'Of course, I won't deny that and this is no excuse for his crimes.'_ The pokemon shakes her head with a knowing smile. _'But he is human too and children are easy to mold into warriors. He was alone and without a friend, there was no one to save him from his father's cruel nature and in turn he became cruel. Maybe, he just needs help to be set on the right path but that is for another time. We are needed elsewhere.'_

* * *

The duo has finally arrived at their destination. A cave hidden behind Tohjo. There wasn’t much inside the cave besides Sean’s father, a radio and some. . . strange pokemon. Kairi had never seen such a pokemon before and it was quite a sight to see. It had long skinny pointy legs, long cord like tentacles for arms. It was colored a vibrant red tone, with stripes of blueish-green and black.

_"Don’t worry my dear subjects, we are nothing to fear, as long as you follow as we command. We aren’t out for blood, at least not yet. Oh Giovanni! Can you see us?! We are prepared for your return! Lord Giovanni your kingdom awaits you!!!"_

Wait. She remembers that. That was the announcement she heard weeks ago when Team Rocket took over the Radio Tower. Right. So this is Giovanni. Sean’s father and the true leader of Team Rocket. Then that strange pokemon must be Atlas. . .

The adult turned to her with a bored look on his face.

“What brings you here child? I can assure you this isn’t a place for kids.” he takes steps up to her, examining her closely. He scowls. “Your face reminds me of an annoying brat from four years ago. . . no matter, I am needed elsewhere. So if you could kindly move out of the way.”

 _'This is the moment to change fate in your favor. He cannot leave and fuse with Deoxys.'_ Kairi nods to the legendary pokemon. The blonde firmly plants her feet in the ground and pulls a pokeball from her belt. Giovanni towers over her with amused eyes.

“Really now? You really want to battle me?” He chuckles. “So be it.”

Giovanni threw out Nidoking followed by Kairi sending out Boomer. The two pokemon charge each other and get into a wrestling lock almost immediately. Boomer bites at Nidokings face before unleashing a flamethrower, all to the face.

Nidoking staggered back, swiping at the burns on its face before glaring at Boomer. The old hellhound smirked and then growled. Nidoking charged again attempting to land a Mega Punch which Boomer evaded and engulfed Nidoking in another round of flames. Nidoking throws the flames aside with a roar and a swing of its arms and shoots poison spikes at Boomer. Boomer is struck and winces as he pulls the spike out his side with his teeth.

The hound spits it out and unleashes a Dark Pulse which topples the Nidoking. Boomer rushes while it’s down and slams it with a brutal Iron Tail.

"Not bad," Giovanni sneers as he returns the Nidoking, "Try this!"

Giovanni sent out Kangaskhan which attacked Boomer with a Headbutt. The hound bared the blow before countering with a Fire Blast. Kangaskhan countered through the flames with a huge wave that came crashing out from behind it as it Surfed and slammed into Boomer. Kairi had to admit that was pretty strange but she’s the one who owns a surfing cow. Nonetheless the Surf had completely KO’d Boomer. Giovanni smirked.

Kairi threw out Apollo and the two pokemon clashed. Apollo used Brick Break on its opponents head which stunned Kangaskhan for a moment as it staggered back and fell over, totally KO’d. Apparently Boomer had worn it out quite a bit before he went down.

With teeth gritted now and a small sweat forming on his forehead, Giovanni returned Kangaskhan and sent out Honchkrow. Kairi returned Apollo and sent out Wooly. The electric type danced from foot to foot pumped to battle. Kairi gave a signal and Wooly unleashed a devastating Thunderbolt on the Honchkrow leaving it paralyzed and twitching with sparks on the cave floor. Wooly finished up with a Thunder Punch and Honchkrow was out.

Now with a few more beads of sweat and a quivering frown Giovanni returned Honchkrow and sent out Nidoqueen.

"This isn’t the end you brat!" he hissed.

Nidoqueen started off this round with a stomp into the ground creating an Earthquake which shook the whole cave. Jesus Christ he’s gonna cause a cave-in like that. Fortunately the cave still stood but Wooly did not. Wooly had been knocked down and suffered severe damage from the type advantage. Wooly staggered as it tried to get up. The Nidoqueen stepped over and placed a foot on Wooly’s head squeezing its face into the dirt. Wooly gave a cry of distress and Kairi quickly returned her beloved pokemon.

With anger in her eyes, Kairi sends out Mittens. This battle ended here. Mittens summoned a wave and slammed into Nidoqueen sending it flying into a wall following up with Ice Beam which froze Nidoqueen solid. Mittens then curled up into a Roll out and slammed into the frozen Nidoqueen shattering it into a million shards. There was nothing left.

You lose Giovanni.

“How is this possible. . .?” Giovanni asks, looking at his shaking hands. He stumbles back, crashing into the wall. His legs give away and he slowly falls to his ass. “Have all these years been a waste? Is my dream of Team Rocket all an illusion?” His eyes dart to Atlas and there’s a moment of hope in his eyes. If he could fuse with that pokemon he could easily crush that blonde girl.

He scrambles over to the DNA pokemon but it would have none of that. The four cord arms grab Giovanni and throws him aside. The adult goes flying right out the cave and judging by the splash of water he fell down the waterfall. The blonde watches in awe at the pokemon’s power. It didn’t even need psychic power to throw him at all!

Atlas snaps his head quickly in Kairi’s direction. Those eyes stared hard at her. The girl begins to sweat as she feels the pokemon’s intense stare. She slowly turns to Atlas but the pokemon grabs her by her neck, lifting her up in the air. Kairi kicks and struggles to get free from that intense grasp. Celebi circles the pokemon trying to tell it Kairi was no enemy. Words seemed to go deaf on its ears.

Its eyes keep an intense stare with Kairi’s. The girl suddenly feels a sharp pain to her head but soon enough, the pokemon lowers her to her feet.

_'You are. . .love of Gwendolyn. . . I follow you.'_


	31. Part Two: Chapter Thirty One

Time swirls around them in a great haze. The group returns to the mortal world as everything fades into a mist. Celebi takes flight, directing their little trio back to the Pokemon League Stadium. The battle still rages on. Sean grins madly at the strewn bodies across the floor. Giovanni is ready to deliver a finishing blow to Soul. The man prepares a Psycho Boost but he and his attack are intercepted by Atlas.

The pokemon’s form shifts into a thick, heavy duty defense form to block the attack causing thick smoke, dust, and debris to kick up as a result. Without skipping a beat Deoxys changes its form into an attack form, from the dust it emerges and strikes Giovanni with its own Psycho Boost at close range. The adult is sent flying and as he makes contact with the ground there’s the sound of something shattering. Slowly, Giovanni’s Soul Form fades away leaving him as a mere human.

 _'Yes! The changes to the timestream have become reality.'_ Celebi cheers. _'You did it Kairi!'_ The fairy pokemon turns its attention to the pained members of Soul on the ground and then back to Sean. She quickly circles the Rocket Heir, sprinkling green dust on him as she flies. _'There! With a heal block he won't be able to heal himself in battle! Now go beat him Kairi! I'll heal your friends!'_

“. . .Wait a minute.” Sean clenches his jaw as his eyes rake over Kairi’s Soul form. That blue furisode, long blonde hair and blue eyes with white diamonds. “I remember now. You. YOU!!!” Sean points a finger at her face. “DAMN IT. I knew it. It couldn’t be coincidence that you of all people were my rival! You were that dumb broad back in Viridian four years ago! You knew all my secrets from the start! Didn’t you?!”

Kairi is obviously unable to respond and that angers him. Once again his own actions backfire on him, if anything that makes him angrier. Sean orders Simon and Nick to attack her but she avoids the assault from the boys by flipping into the air. As she is airborne she summons her yumi with a snap of her fingers. Unlike usual bows this one is lacking a tsuru string; despite that, Kairi acts as if there is one and pulls her arm back. Water in the air is drawn towards her and ends up taking the shape of a ya. She releases the arrow letting it fly and slam right into Sean’s chest which in turn propels him with enough power to smash into the wall behind him.

Meanwhile with Celebi, the small pokemon circles the fallen group on the ground, sprinkling them in a light blue dust. Cuts and wounds close up at rapid speed to their surprise. Rejuvenated, the Kanto Soul trio jump back up to their feet. Tired, Celebi smiles and falls to the floor with a dull thud.

“That must have been Healing Wish.” Gwen explains when Brass lifts the pokemon into his arms.

“How brave of it to heal us like that.” Steel whispers.

“Well, let’s not let it go to waste.” Galvin grins, fixing his trench coat.

By this time Sean had removed himself from the wall and was flying to Kairi with great speed but Steel intercepted him and delivered a punch to his face. Sean falls out of the sky in a rather ungraceful spin and crashes to the ground. Just as he is about to get up he receives a heavy boot clad foot to his chest and he’s sent flying once more.

Sean lands on his face with a loud thud. He sits there for moments, shaking in rage before he screams loudly. The arena shakes as fire falls from the sky above them and everyone makes quick work to avoid the falling blasts. Sean’s shoulders shake and he’s breathing heavily and angrily.

“I’ve had it!” he screams. “I will destroy you all right here and right no-” but his angry and hysterical rant is cut short abruptly as he is kicked right in the face. Sean falls to the ground after flying and skidding across the arena. He gets up quickly nonetheless. He’s ready to scream and snarl at his attacker but. . . to his surprise, it’s Linda. She came all the way from Sinnoh just to beat him up?!

“What the hell are you doing here Linda?!”

“I decided to provide help where it is needed. I received a call and I came to assist.”

“I don’t believe this shit. . .” Sean growls. “You can-” He takes a fist to his jaw, shutting him up. Linda follows up with a kick to his stomach when he decides to attend to his swollen jaw. Linda does not slow her assaults for even a second. She’s delivering two years worth of payback for his lies and manipulation.

Sean rises no less. He’s not giving up. He spent years, money, and resources to get to where he stands today. To lose is a failure. He can't fail after all he’s done so far. He was trained to win. To be a ruler. HE CAN’T LOSE HERE!!

The fight is intense and the two teens are locked in battle. Firm stances on the ground, foreheads smashed together and fingers locked together as the two struggle to win against the other. Suddenly, there’s a ringing of bells and the sounds of plucked koto strings in the air. To the surprise of Soul, in the shambled stands are the kimono sisters, both silver and gold, and they both look serious.

“Today we see the day of destiny my sisters.” the young woman in black and silver announces.

“Not only that, we have an important role to play.” Tamao smiles. The two girls part and direct their dances to one side of the stadium, silver to the left and gold to the right. In union the girls snap open the fans, release their partner pokemon and they dance.

At first, Sean thinks nothing of it but slowly, Linda begins to overpower him. His mind races in horror. Linda is defeating him. Of all the people in the world to lose to at this critical moment in his life is Linda. The music is becoming louder and his ears begin to ring painfully. His consciousness is fading but he needs to fight back. He hurls insults at himself for his struggles.

When a silver light engulfs Linda she lets out a scream, she jumps into the air, hoisting Sean into the air with her and she throws him to the ground with a powerful yell. Sean smashes into the ground with a sickening crack.

“Is this really it. . .?” he asks weakly. “My own weapon. . . defeats me. . . how. . . pathetic. . .”

And so, the day of destiny ends with our heroes as the victors.

Gwen is more than elated to see Atlas in one piece. She spent years looking for the DNA pokemon. He was a family member after all. The cord-like arms of the pokemon fuse together to make a pair of hands so he could lift up Gwen.

“Oh Atlas! I’m so glad you’re okay!!”

 _’Yes. . .very happy little lady. . . is not hurt. . ..'_ Gwen proceeds to shower the pokemon with love and attention, something it has clearly missed in the last few years. Kairi explained her reasons for why she left the battle so early and at a serious time.

“So, because you were chosen by Ho-Oh in the first place Celebi elected you as the person to alter the past so the battle would turn in our favor. . .?” Galvin questions, rubbing his chin. Kairi nods her head rapidly. He returns the gesture before glancing around. “I see, well, I wanted to thank Celebi, but it seems she’s already gone.” Kairi blinks and takes a look around. True to his words, Celebi was nowhere to be found.

Had she returned to her forest already?

Kairi decided to question that later when the kimono girls came up to her and congratulated her on her efforts in battle.

Linda, Nick, and Simon were the only ones to watch Sean be taken away. To be honest, it was surreal. What remained of Team Rocket was promptly arrested when the authorities had arrived. Sean had no reaction. Just. . . nothing, no insults or outcries. He sits in the police vehicle defeated. As the vehicle drives away, Simon slowly raises his hand and bids farewell to his blood family with a weak wave. His arm falls weakly to his side as he releases his Soul transformation. When the vehicle drives away he places a hand on Nick’s shoulder and gives him a reassuring squeeze.

"You did good Nick."

"I didn’t do much. . ." The brunette laughs.

"No, I mean, when you confronted Sean. . .. about what he did to you. That was brave. . ." Simon loops an arm around Nick’s shoulder and kisses his temple. "You did good."

Meanwhile on the highest levels of the arena is the blonde shrine maiden and sitting in a chair next to her is none other than Celebi. The fairy pokemon munches on a kernel of popcorn after a hard day of work.

"I see the repair went well."

 _’Yep. . ..'_ The pokemon pauses and looks to the human _'Hey, which one is yours?’_

"Mine?" the woman repeats baffled.

 _’Kid. One of those is your kid, right?'_ The woman sighs.

"Oh yes. . ." she puts on a thoughtful face for a moment before smiling. "I”ll give you a hint. It’s a boy."

_’A boy huh. . . Well, I want to meet him.’_

"Maybe one day dear. Right now we must return to the forest." With that said the woman rises to her feet and makes way to the exit. Celebi reluctantly complies and floats after the woman.

_'Aw. We don't go out often. . .'_

"Yes, well, maybe soon we can. Now come along."

* * *

They say time heals all wounds. With Team Rocket gone at long last cities are rebuilding with the combined efforts of the Elite Four and Soul Chamber. The people are adjusting to their lives once more and finally are living without fear.

People like Professor Elm are living quite happily now. His lab has risen from the ashes, bigger and better than ever and Jarvis has helped improve his research immensely.

As for our heroes, Simon, Nick and Linda have become official members of the Soul Chamber.

On Linda’s request she was assigned to work with the Johto group for future missions. Which was understandable; she knows far more about Johto than she knows of Sinnoh.

Nick still receives therapy and help for the abuse he suffered but, he’s improved immensely ever since he confronted Sean. Nick is probably the most active member of Soul Chamber due to his desire to help others.

Gwen returned home to visit her parents. Both were relieved to see her doing so well and home with Atlas. It took quite a bit of work to convince them to let her leave again but they yield in the end leading to her permanent residence in Soul Chamber castle with Atlas acting as a guard.

* * *

Steel carefully unlocks the door to the library with a lit candle in hand. She pokes her head in and glances to the left and then to the right. Not a soul in sight but she knew better.

She slowly enters the room and quietly closes the door behind her. Steel takes a moment to pull tighter on the blanket around her shoulders. With the blanket attended to she enters the depths of the Soul Chamber library.

She’s gone through the library so many times she can find what she needs with ease. And so, as usual, she finds Galvin at a table deep in research and surrounded by open books. The young researcher supports the upper half of his body with his elbows as he stares intently at a book. He sighs heavily as he rubs his temples.

Steel smiles. She carefully places her candle down on the table top and plucks the glasses off Galvin’s face.

"H-hey!"

"It’s three in the morning, Galvin." She simply smiles, folding the black framed glasses. His cheeks go red and he glances away.

"I-I knew that."

"Of course you did," Steel teases. She places Galvin’s glasses down on the table top before him and takes a seat on the table. "Anyway, you," she sings, poking him in the nose. "Need to take a break. We’re no longer a three man team, we have many members now so research can be done with help, so don’t take it all on yourself."

"I suppose so," he sighs, rubbing his temple once more. He leans to his right allowing his head to rest partially on Steel’s lap. ". . .Just. . .we need to know all we can to stop threats before they spiral out of control."

"But you can’t do that if you’re tired." Steel coos, lifting his head up. She kisses his cheek causing his cheeks to glow red. She slides off the table, wraps her blanket around his shoulder and once she collects her candle she walks him out of the library.

* * *

Two figures walk down the dirt road hand in hand. The duo comes to a stop when a tractor towing bails of hay in a cart. The young man talks with the driver, asking if they can catch a ride to Miller Ranch. The driver nods and juts his thumb to his cart. The young man helps the young lady into the cart before climbing in himself.

The couple sit in the hay somewhat content. It’s itchy on the skin but it's a familiar feeling. The young woman falls back into the hay to stare up at the sky. Her companion looks between her and the sky. It’s not a hard decision to follow suit with her.

"Feeling nervous Kairi?" She shrugs. "I’m sure it will be fine." She glances over to Simon. He smiles. "Your mom might freak a little because she hasn’t seen you in a while." Simon’s eyes drift to her hand where her promise ring rests. "But, no matter what," fingers intertwine and lock together like a knot that will bind them together. "We’ll be together, forever." Kairi meets Simon’s shimmering eyes. He smiles. She moves closer so their foreheads touch.

"Thank you for saving me."


End file.
